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.

Fighting for a Cause: Men (Part 4)

A saying that I heard that has always stuck with me is that a man should bring his identity to this world, not get his identity from it.

That saying is very true, but unfortunately not often the case.

Especially with a younger generation that now identifies themselves (and their self-worth) through social media, society, etc.

And if young boys can make it to becoming men, few will ever come to know that the most important thing about being a man is not what he does, but who he becomes.

That message is a tough sell because men identify themselves (and their perceived value) by their economic role & their job/career. So many men fall into this trap and are failing on this measure, while at the same time being told that they are expected to do better.

That they are a mess. You (men) need to fix this. You need to try harder. You need to be more. You need to give more. The church even goes further; you need to sin less.

Does this negative message seem like its going to encourage men? Or sustain men into becoming who they are meant to be? I don’t know where this message is coming from, but it certainly isn’t producing the effect that those who spread it want it to have.

They are right about one thing; men are made for more but the message they’re giving is leaving men exhausted from being told, “If you’d just apply yourself, you’d be better.” “You can’t be trusted, but you can do better…”

How is that paradox helpful when men are labeled as untrustworthy, lazy, etc. yet at the same time told to be better?

Men will only rise to the level of the message they are being given.

Men may be willing, but the message they’re receiving is not helpful and plays right into the hands of the enemy. In fact, when you think about it those words could just as easily have come from the enemy as it would a well-meaning church or program leader.

Its a message that lands on a man like a set of chores, he’ll do them and he needs to do them, but he’s not going to get life from them. When the message offered highlights a man’s sin (and that he needs to do better) it plays on his heart with guilt and shame, and he will serve the church (and his world) out of a sense of obligation rather than freedom.

The Gospel is so much more than just being forgiven for sins. What God accomplished through Jesus is a tremendous life changing story. It is about restoration, and a future and a hope.

TheGospel in its fullness is about God calling us to something so much larger than we could imagine, and He invites us to take a journey with Him that will transform us as men.

On it we will discover that our mistakes (and sins) were taken care of long before we even made them and it is a journey in which our King, God Himself, is continually guiding us, training us, equipping us, and turning over the business of the Kingdom – to us.

Such a King calls. Such a mission exists. We need to be on that mission. Men must have a mission in life, it is how we are made.

We as men must get back our awareness in life that we live in a larger story. And God, who is the author of that story is calling on us to live courageously and to walk with Him in a far greater role than so many of us have settled for. Make no mistake, the Enemy is dead set against us becoming whole because when we become whole, we become free – and a bunch of men who are free is bad for the enemy.

God is calling men to take a journey with Him, one about discovering who He is and who He made us to be, as well as who we aren’t. That last part is important. It’s how men define themselves as different from this world.

Walking with God is our invitation to become greater, to become different.

When you accept Him, God will train you, and He will test you. Your heart will be summoned and tested, tried and proven. That is how God entrusts a man with more – Passing the test, handling each obstacle and dealing with the enemy – Only then does God sees fit to entrust a man with more.

More opportunity, more privilege, more impact and more authority. This is the way spiritual development in God’s kingdom works. I live and fight that fight on a daily basis. It is a journey that will last a lifetime. If you are moving forward you are making progress.

Men are called to so much more. Jesus told the parable to His disciples in Mathew 25:

“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’”

“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.”

“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.”

“For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” (Mathew 25:23-30)

You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness…

“Adversity in life is a privilege”

I heard those words from a professional fighter once, and it’s always stuck with me. One of the gifts of adversity is responsibility. Responsibility with men is in short supply these days. It only comes through taking risk, perseverance, faith, trust, and enduring hardship.

How have we been sold the lie that life was going to be easy or comfortable?

Easy or comfortable is not what God promises nor is it what the records of Jesus’s disciples lives reveal. I wrote about that in an earlier post – all but 3 of Jesus’s disciples were executed because of their faith. Jesus made it clear to His disciples, that “In this world you will have trouble.” “But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (JOHN 16:33)

Its so critical and important that men experience who Jesus is, and that we are like Him, He made Himself to be human – for us. We also need to understand who He was up against, because that also is who we are up against, and the enemy will do everything in his power to stop us from coming to experience Jesus.

Jesus’s teaching while He was here on earth was not only to deliver a message of Salvation, but to show us how the Kingdom works, how love works and how to have life in the Kingdom of God. He taught us that true life is connected to Him.

A way must be made inside of each man to experience Him, which means letting go of the walls we put up, and any of our past wounds that isolate us, and lie to us. These need to be identified, treated, and healed.

The bigger story is that there are two kingdoms at war over the vital piece of property the scriptures call the heart. Both kingdoms know its worth. One kingdom offers lies, the other – the truth. One offers death, the other – life.

You see, if you get the heart of a person – you get the whole person. And both kingdoms know this.

Every heart matters. Every choice matters. Every moment in a man’s life matters. There are no lost moments for which we are not held accountable. It’s easy to forget that in today’s world.

Redemption by definition in the dictionary is the result of redeeming, which itself is an act that serves to offset or compensate for a defect.

Men need redemption. I do. All men do.

I consider my own story to be one of redemption. To come from such a low place and rise above the circumstances and rise above the pain and press forward until I succeed – I owe it all to God and His power, His love, and His grace. My story would have not been possible without Him.

We can all experience this divine redemption through restoration of men’s hearts. To go back to the past (with our Heavenly Father) within ourselves to restore our hearts to their original pristine condition – before all the scratches and dings and dents. Before all the abuse and neglect.

Restoring the heart means restoring it to a condition before all of the damage the guilt and shame this world has inflicted on its men. Its vitally important that something good replace all the pain, guilt, and shame which we’ve learned to hold in our hearts and lives which in turn has led to a world of wounded men, who live lives wounding others.

Its so important that we experience this healing and restoration because just as wounded hearts wound other hearts, so a whole heart can help other hearts become whole as well.

Isn’t that part of a man’s purpose in this life?

ROMANS 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

That which was wounded and intended for bad, God will heal and make good.

LUKE 6:45 – “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart[…]”

We as men need to receive from Him the good things we didn’t get and give to Him the bad things we did get.

PSALM 55:22 – “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you;[…]”

Doesn’t God invite us to cast our burdens onto Him?

What are we waiting for?

We all have a story to tell, and God has an important and vital part for each of us to play in His Kingdom, as beloved sons and warriors who are trustworthy, faithful, and good for the hearts of others. But we must first recover from the wounds of our own story and be restored.

But most men don’t know their own story. I didn’t know mine until years after my Salvation. How many men are willing to explore their hearts journey or explore the trauma and pain that has happened and its effects. I can speak for most, that thought scares the hell out of me. I did it, however, because it was the only choice left for me. It doesn’t have to be that way.

I could give a man any message from what I’ve learned, it would be that.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Take that journey and take that walk with God. Ask Him the questions none of us (as men) even have a clue about:

What happened to me?
When and where were the defining moments of my life?
What do I love?
What do I hate?
What am I most hopeful for?
What am I most afraid of?
What am I loving that isn’t loving me back?
What have I given my heart to that isn’t giving back me?
When did I learn to turn to them for life?

The answers are found in your own story. Only He can guide you to the answers of those questions we’re so afraid to ask, “Who am I in life, really?”
Only then will you begin to see the lies of the enemy that you were told your entire life, becoming replaced by the TRUTH.

If that sounds like a life changing revelation, it is.

Jesus loves us more than we can ever know, and he wants to heal us even more than we want to be healed. He’s waiting for you to come to Him, with your burdens, your hopes. He waits for you to want Him, so he can help you with yourself.

To break free.

Free from the subtle snares and traps of this world that become a cage for us. A cage that most men never come to realize is a prison that they are being held in. Ensuring that a man remains trapped, held down, and settles for less and becomes less than he is meant for in this world.

That is mission of the enemy.

We must learn to see these snares and traps that cage us. We must learn to see what has bound us first – in order to become unbound, to become free.

Because the enemy knows that the path to victory over believers lies in seeing us become like the seeds in the parable of the Sower, thrown into the thorns and choked off by the lies and deceit of this world. Chocked into becoming unfruitful. Into not fulfilling our destiny.

With the help of Christ, we can break free. And we must.

I’ll close this post with a quote that seems appropriate, since I opened it with a similar one:

“To be nobody but yourself in a world, which is doing its best day and night, to make you like everybody else,
means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”

E. E. Cummings

Being a son (or daughter) of God means breaking free from the bondage of this world. It means becoming different. It means rejecting the world and what it has to offer.

When the pharisees questioned Jesus over the character of His followers he shot back at them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (MATT 9:12-13)

God isn’t calling the healed or the righteous. He’s calling the outsider of this world.

Become that outsider.

The one who brings his identity in Christ to this world, not the one who gets his identity from it.

Take that first step, He is waiting for you.

AMEN