In the neo-classic movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, bumbling Captain Jack Sparrow devotes himself to finding one thing: The Black Pearl. It’s not a jewel but a ghostly pirate ship. He’ll do anything to possess it—steal, lie, cavort, and cheat. To capture his prize he relies on a mysterious compass. This device, shrouded in mystery, always points to whatever (or whomever) the holder wants most.
The captain’s heart was devoted to finding the ship, and his compass showed him the path to it. The needle almost always pointed to vessel’s direction. And Sparrow went to great lengths to stow his compass in a safe place.
Where is Your Wanter Pointing?
Like Jack Sparrow’s compass, we are all designed with an internal wanter—a compass, per say. Our wanter wants many different things like food, love, money, and sex. Its needle also points us to help the homeless, feed starving children, and share the Gospel. What our wanter wants can be good or bad, from the flesh or from the spirit, and moral and immoral. In any case, it continuously wants and often controls the final say in what we do or say—our will.
Even if we act contrary to what our wanter desires, we deal with it each moment.
You Only Get One Want
Keep in mind your wanter (or compass) only gets one want. You can’t commandeer someone else’s want. Jack Sparrow greatest desire was for the Black Pearl pirate ship. You can want him to want something else— he would have to have that want. Make sense?
In another simple example, your best friend wants Mexican carryout for dinner, but you want Chinese. You want them to want Chinese, but you can’t take their want. Their want is their want—it’s not yours.
It becomes very unhealthy to try to get someone to want something you want. Get means control. And to control another adult, if it’s not a criminal action, is at least disrespectful. Even if you’re dealing with a non-criminal sin in someone’s life, it’s hard to bring people to a heartfelt conviction if the Spirit hasn’t entered into that desire yet.
In another serious example, you’re involved in drug use, and someone calls you out on it. This caring individual wants you to change, but you refuse. Even though they have good intentions, they can’t have your want. Like you, they only have one. In relationships, you may want your partner to talk about what’s bothering them, but you can’t want it for them.
As much fun as it would be, we ultimately aren’t the Holy Spirit to someone else. If they follow Christ, He’s Lord of their life, not us. It’s not our job to manage someone else’s wanter. When you do try to control someone else’s wanter, it arrives in the form of begging, keeping score, or stealing. You may want to do overseas missions and also want your spouse to want to missions, but to plea with them or setup deals with your husband or wife is unhealthy.
“Wants” are exclusive to each person and you can only have your own. We can’t steal someone’s want.
How Can You Change Your Wanter?
We also have enough work to do to change our own wanter. God gave us desires and it’s up to us and our relationship with God to guide where our compass points. It takes work and God’s grace for us to align the compass of our hearts with the Lord’s heart. But it can be done. Slowly and surely, as we spend time praying, fasting, and in the Word, the Lord will show us where our compass does not point to True North. It won’t happen overnight. We must be intentional.
Following Jesus is being his apprentice. An apprentice watches their master’s every move. They want to think like him and be like him in every way. Young Jewish disciples even followed their Rabbi into the bathroom because they didn’t want to miss anything!
As Dallas Willard points out in Spirit of the Disciplines, “We can train ourselves to invoke God’s presence in every action we perform. This is an experiential fact that has been proven in the lives of many disciples of Jesus, ancient and modern. God will meet us in love, and love will keep our minds directed toward him as the magnet pulls the needle of the compass. Habit will be confirmed in gracious interaction, and our whole lives will be bathed in the presence of God. Constant prayer will only “burden” us as wings burden the bird in flight.”
Don’t give up. It takes times for our hearts to fully align with His. Spiritual formation is a joyful process. Our wanter will have to reorient itself in many ways before it fully aligns with God’s wanter for us.
What is Finished
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).
Our Job
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).
His Promise
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Amen!
Why is it Good to Change Your Wanter?
It’s for our benefit that we change our wanter and point it closer and closer to God’s Will. The will Lord free us from the tyranny of our unregenerated desires. They are such a burden. Why shouldn’t we covet? Because covetousness is a heavy load to carry. It’s same with revenge. Exacting revenge on our enemies rather than offering forgiveness carries a heavy toll on our well-being. God designed it this way. Indeed, Satan does hide the price tag of sin.
Overall, being dragged away by a wanter outside of God Will costs us too much.
My question is, are you involved in the process of letting God point your compass to Him? The spiritual life in Christ is not flippant or haphazard. It’s intentional. It takes one step at time with each decision we make for Christ or against Him. It’s for His glory and our joy and peace in Him.
