NOTE: These are my thoughts as I go through “Heart of a Warrior” and put down into words its message and theme to help men reclaim their identity – as Kingdom men who stand firm in their faith and are willing and able to serve Christ and the greater good of this world.

It starts with the heart.

“The most critical need of the church at this moment is men, bold men, free men. The church must seek, in prayer and much humility, the coming again of men made of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made.”

-Aiden Wilson Tozer

As men, we always hope that this is going to be ‘the’ talk that changes us..

Always vague enough to include everyone, always applicable enough to make every man feel a twinge of guilt. Always a package aimed at men’s hearts to do more , do better, sin less, and achieve more..

That doesn’t work because there are serious flaws with the modern men’s church program – yet another one size fits all approach men buy into, the speaker assumes too much – how do you know these men are ready for this… for a mission? Everyone is fired up and ready to go but where?

Being fired up in the locker room isn’t the same as being well trained and oriented on the field. Its basically a bunch of talk packaged into an hour long program – and it seldom sticks.

What does make a difference? The reality of how it works is missions find YOU. Go and make disciples – that’s always been the mission, but is that too broad? In the bible men had all kinds of missions, a farmer told to build an ark, a shepherd commissioned by a burning bush to free a nation, a boy soldier who slays a giant, a fishermen summoned to leave his nets and go follow a teacher.

These men weren’t trying to create a mission, they weren’t even looking for one.

Missions find YOU.

You don’t have to find them. A kingdom man will have several missions in his lifetime they will always be bigger than their own and include his heart and the hearts of others.

When we make up our own missions, they are small enough to accomplish on our own. Yet is just the opposite with men and women of the Bible – they are caught up in them and the only means of success and even survival is to walk with God.

Or if left to our own we will manufacture a mission that is grand beyond reason and needs the help of others. Again, it is the pull to self-reliance.

If you are not on a mission then you are in danger, and the scales are still over your eyes and you are blind to what you must see and overcome.

Too many men put the cart before the horse – Jesus spent 3 years with His disciples before He deployed them & gave them their mission. Only then were they ready. Before you become a warrior, you must become a beloved son, and before you can become a beloved son – you must reclaim your heart.T

hat is the 1st Mission. The dangerous and glorious mission of getting your heart back.

Enter the battle too soon, untrained and unprepared, and you will fail.

We build our belief system, brick by brick from our stockpile of conclusions, and experiences. How to promote ourselves, how to avoid pain, etc.

All stored in a man’s heart. The heart is in constant danger of being compromised and wounded.

All the experiences of one’s history are stored in the heart. It is the seat of emotions, knowledge, wisdom, moral character, etc.

The heart knows, understands, and reflects.

It is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit within us. It is the center of every man. All our attitudes, beliefs, and conclusions shaped by our experiences – these need God’s attention!

As men, our hearts need God’s restorative work – scriptures say to guard the heart above all else. There are things growing there, wandering about that have gone unattended for far too long.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23 NIV)

There is a remedy to this false self-life from which we all suffer – another kind of life, another way of life.

The life of a son of God.

How to fight, how to rest, how to be loved, and in time learns how to love.

God has millions of prodigal sons – His idea is to restore what has been lost – as that begins to take place a man begins to see challenges in his inner life that must be overcome. He also begins to see who he can become and the role that is his and his alone that he must play.

The enemy of our hearts knows that we are never alone. A man can be so fooled, tricked into believing his false-self is his real self that he isn’t ever ready to fight against it.

God wants to change all that if a man is ready.

But most men aren’t.

A dead giveaway is they don’t ask questions, they don’t listen – not just to God but to anyone, they are closed off, their lines of communication deeply infiltrated by the enemy.

Most men don’t know the effect their life has on those around them – either they haven’t had the courage to ask or no one in their life has had the courage to tell them.

The mantra of men – don’t let them know you don’t know anything, or make sure they know that you know everything.

The ability to see the things within oneself that need caring for and then bring those things to God for treatment & healing – is just another training day in the Kingdom.

Overcoming self, the false self is the highest gift.

Things begin to change in my life when I began to observe my false-self and continue to change when I let my true self, core identity in Christ take over my false-self. Some things need to be unlearned, too – one of the first steps is to circle back around to what has already taken place in our story – what we learned along the way and why we became the way we are – requires a lot of attention if we are to become truly free.

Regular visits with God to explore one’s personal history are standard practice for men to shed their false self and to become true men.

Like a construction site the foundation is to be loved well. A strong base of love makes for a strong structure. For a boy being seen, wanted, invited, encouraged, provides tremendous foundational material. Having his heart handled lovingly and intentionally furnishes sound building blocks for building a man of quality.

A good father makes sure his son gets plenty of such materials.

But what if our parents had unfinished foundations of their own? Feuds, fights, instead of harmony may have been your home.

What would that foundation later produce when it was their turn to build yours?

An inspection of the materials passed down from one generation to the next can explain a lot of where we are today. Awareness of what damaged us and who is responsible doesn’t stop the damage or the pain – healing does.

In order for healing to happen, our ill constructed legacies must be seen.

This is a critical first step.

It is critical that we fight the battles of the past. When we were younger, no one showed us. When we were boys there was no one there to intervene – to step in and fight for us.

The first part of training is to recover from the past – from the losses and wounds accumulated over a man’s life journey. We don’t go back to the past to stay in it, but rather we go back as men to honor our moments of loss – to grieve them, to acknowledge it happened.

They hurt , they matter – and they need to be treated.

We go back with God for our healing.

When we do, God extends his love & compassion to our hearts. One wound at a time he addresses them.

Our enemy senses this and tempts us to live in the power and authority of our wounds.

Ask God these questions:

Who delivered the messages & materials that formed the beliefs of my heart?

What happened to me that brought on the loss of heart?

In my life journey who inflicted hurt, guilt, shame?

When? Where?

Be gracious, be patient – it takes time. It happens in installments over time.

Pray Davids prayer from Psalm 139:23-24:

“Search me, God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
 See if there is any offensive way in me,
 and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Then actively listen and write down whatever comes to mind. God wants a man to know his own story before he rewrites it.

You are needed. You must win your heart back before you can become a beloved son and warrior.

Such a man knows that first he is truly a son who is then further trained up in the art of warfare.

We must go with God to dislodge the lies the enemy has embedded in our heart, in the core of whom we are – where our true identity dwells. The enemy’s attack in our formative years is like a virus, compromising who we are and who we might become.

You cannot be the person God meant you to be and you cannot live the life He meant you to live unless you live from the heart.

This is why the enemys plan from the beginning is to assault the heart:

Make men so busy they ignore the heart.
Wound them so deeply they don’t want a heart.
Twist their theology so they despise the heart.

Doesn’t that sound like every man?

Take away their courage, destroy their creativity, make intimacy with God impossible for them.

Why? Because the enemy fears you and what you might become. He therefore wants to separate you from intimacy with God. From the very thing for which you were created.

Separate a man from the Father and that man is Lost.

Unable to receive what God has for him and unable to provide for and protect the hearts of others.

The journey is not easy. It typically takes 2 -3 years for a man to get his heart back if that man walks with God and stays the course.

The question is how earnestly do you want what you seek? How badly do you want your heart back?

It is in the healing of a man’s heart that the greatest training takes place. Reclaiming your heart is the first step in fighting for other hearts as well.

Your story is part of a larger story and you are needed..