He Trains My Hands For War Part 1

"Blessed be the Lord my Rock,

Who trains my hands for war,

And my fingers for battle—" Psalm 144:1 

I believe that a massive part of a person accepting God's calling on their life involves what I call 'God training'. In the western world of Christianity, when you feel called to become a pastor (or something similar) you notice the pressure to attend a school for ministry training. I am not talking about this sort of training. There are certain aspects of accepting a calling that a ministry school is unable to teach you, and I want to point out just a few. 

When I began on my mission to preach the gospel as a full time pursuit, I came across the verse that I started this blog with. ‘He trains my hands for war….’ And I asked God to train me because of reference to this verse "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Eph 6:12..

Soon after, I was watching a documentary on how they recruit for the British S.A.S regiment and I felt Holy Spirit say ‘This is what your training will be like.’ That’s intense! What they will do in recruitment is a number of things. They want to expose your fears, test your physical and psychological limits, try and make you quit and pretty much attempt to break you in half physically but mostly mentally.

Since I saw that documentary it has been close to 2 years. During this time I have had some massive challenges come my way and I often wondered why God was allowing these things to happen to me. The other night was one such occasion and I found myself thinking negatively and wanting to quit! Just then, I switched on the T.V and saw another documentary on S.A.S training and one of the instructors had some interesting things to say that really point out why sometimes God allows us to go through hard times in preparation for the things ahead;

- Respond to negative circumstance with faith instead of fear.

“War is full of false endings...” The instructor is referring to the unpredictability of war. As long as it’s war, battles can happen at any moment, especially when you think the last one is over. I raise my own funds to do the work that I do. I have a target of 100% and technically cannot do ministry until this target has been reached. A while back, I was nearly there and then over a 3-week period, a few people began to reduce their giving amounts. I thought to myself ‘God, what is happening?! I was almost there!” When the first person reduced there giving (which was a lot), it took me 5 days to get my faith back in position, the next person dropped, it took 3 days, the next person dropped, it took a day and when the next person dropped, I responded in faith instead doubt and the giving went back up.

- Not giving up in the face of adversity;

“When you're in the face of adversity, are you going to give up?” The instructor said this is why they do such un-fare testing. As an elite soldier, they face some of the most negative and discouraging circumstances life has to offer and they need to be sure to only send in people who will not give up in the face of adversity, because if they do give up, the men in their unit are at risk of being killed. I have faced so many challenges that have pushed me to the brink of giving up on my calling. When I have said I have wanted to quit, God has challenged me saying “If you quit, you will regret it. Keep going.” Even after some of my most major failings.

Next week, I will talk on 3 more points;

- Get Rid of That Bad Attitude

- Control your fear

- You Don't Always Understand The Means To The End. 


Looking forward to it!