The Warrior's Calling

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you, concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Shirley Weaver wants to take you there. And now, here's today's episode. Near the end of May 1940, continuing into the early days of June of that year, a fierce deadly battle began to evolve over the French port of Dunkirk. This was during the Second World War between the Allies and Nazi Germany. This battle was so threatening to the British, also to the French, that there was a knowing that everything was at stake. And fear and all that goes with war became like a blanket, a very heavy force that settled in on the people.

As the appearance of defeat loomed, and defeat seemed certain, hope against hope basically was all that could be mustered at the time. But out of that time, there arose a man who, as an intercessor, had the understanding of the place of intercession with God and the release of supernatural, unusual intervention by God in response to the prayers and intercessions of those who know God and know how to believe Him and trust Him to do what men cannot do. It is in this place that, as a human being, we take up the position that God expects us to do as we reach for and believe Him to do what only He can do that is out of our reach and out of our ability. This man, Rees Howells, let me spell that for you in case you're not familiar with this name, R-E-E-S-H-O-W-E-L-L-S. And I'm drawing today from a book titled Rees Howells, Intercessor, a wonderful basically journal of this man's encounter with God, his experiences in the supernatural in terms of supernatural answers to prayer, and those divine interventions that we believe God for today, probably more strongly than ever before in our lives, we know that the divine intervention of God must take place if we are to survive as free people, if we are to survive as a religious community, as a fellowship of the family of God. If Christianity is to remain, there must be an answer from heaven.

That is our position. And while we're speaking of this man, Rees Howells, in particular this book, Rees Howells, Intercessor, the man, Mr. Howells, was actually a missionary born in the late 1800s. And as a missionary, he actually was also founder of the Bible College in Swansea, Wales. And the gist, as we described the battle at Dunkirk, as that battle began to wage, Mr. Howells led the students in the Bible College in prayer for those men and women who were in the battle, whose lives were on the line. The gist of this admonition that he gave to them as he led them in daily prayer was this, one of my favorite quotes of all time.

I learned it as a new believer. He said, I am not willing that thousands of our boys should be lost. Therefore, do not allow those young men at the front to do more than we do here today. The implication, of course, that the battle of prayer was the one that was being waged by these students under the leadership of Mr. Howells as the battle actually waged in a natural sense out around the city of Dunkirk and there around the waters of that part of the world. His journal, which he made entries into throughout each day of that battle, May 26 through June 4 of 1940, May 21, 9 a.m., Fear of Invasion.

Today was the darkest day in the history of this country, especially after the Prime Minister's speech. Everyone in town is expecting the enemy to invade this country. We have told the Lord our lives for victory. We ought to pray now for the Lord to stop them coming over to this country. At 2.80 p.m., 2.08 p.m., we must pray for the Lord to keep the enemy in check.

He is like a roaring lion. Later that day, probably in the dark, 7 p.m., the French premier says tonight, it is only a miracle that can save us. The test is whether the Bible is true and I, for one, am willing to risk my life to prove that it is and I want to tell you tonight that it is quite true. See, therefore, that your believing is right and if it is, you don't need to have any fear. So Mr. Havels is laying down here the fact that the nation is enveloped in fear, naturally so, the terror of being overrun by a fierce, cruel invader. So the stand that is taken here is the truth of God's word and his promise to defend and protect and whether we really believe that or not.

Another entry a few days later, May 29, Mr. Havels says this, today was the day of evacuation of Dunkirk. Let us be dear in our prayer that the intercession point is gained. The battle is the Holy Spirit's. See him outside of yourselves tonight. He is there on the battlefield with his drawn sword. See the Lord. See the Lord defending you. See him out in the center of the battle, of the onslaught that has taken place.

Look outside yourself. See him working miraculously to save and to deliver. And I love just this part of the conclusions that have been written by the author of this wonderful book. He says this, when we look back now after all these years, many of us in Britain recalled the terror of those days. Remembering the miracle of Dunkirk, acknowledged by our leaders to be an intervention from God.

Let me read that again. Remembering the miracle of Dunkirk, acknowledged by our leaders to be an intervention from God. The calm sea, allowing the smallest boats to cross. The almost complete evacuation of our troops. And then the lead Mr. Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain, gave to the nation. How thankful we are that God had this company of hidden intercessors whose lives were on the altar day after day as they stood in the gap for the deliverance of Britain. And he goes on to say, much more significant, listen to this with your heart, much more significant than the work of armies and civilians alike, was the even greater and more powerful combined efforts of those Christians before almighty God as they prayed. This was the secret to the success of Dunkirk. This is what turned the tide. This is what explained the amazing weather conditions, the miracle that took place in the weather conditions, the curious decisions to retreat made by Hitler, and so on.

So I know you know the history. I won't go into the details there, except to say, the warrior's calling, I'm talking physical human warrior, is from the Lord. The Lord calls armies. He calls the individual warrior. And their calling is to protect and to defend, to protect and defend.

Certainly every nation has had their go at attack on some level, or at least not an honorable dealing with sister nations. But in every place, God's heart is to establish his righteous cause and then to raise up a righteous force to protect and to defend his righteous cause as he lays it out in nations over time throughout history and we have arrived at a point today where we read from Matthew 24 this very sobering few verses concerning the day that we live as we look at our placement and our timing in the last of the last days. Beginning verse 6, Matthew 24, this is out of the ESV. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. Verse 7, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

And lastly, verse 8, all these are but the beginning of birth pangs. We know that the day is coming when a final battle will be waged and that the Lord himself will lead that contest. There will be a righteous army that comes to overthrow that which is evil. Those forces of evil.

That will be the final contest actually. But again, picking up where we are today and this calling of the warrior at the center of every troubled spot around the world we find the gathering of armies. These are mobilized to fight often deadly battles and these battles determine the future and affect destinies of multitudes of people.

In every nation these destinies hang in the balance. And especially for these warriors, these human warriors who fight and the families that they must leave behind to take up arms there is both a calling from God and an absolute assignment of angelic helpers and the moving of God's Holy Spirit to intervene and protect them as they fight against the forces of evil. Keep this in mind and if you think about this, think about it this way, the call of God covers every area of human existence.

I know you see that and I'm including that of the warrior. What is that calling? The warrior is called to train, to discipline. He's called to a noble cause. Those that the Lord calls, he calls to a noble cause.

That cause to protect and to defend. Biblically, this power of armies is linked to the warrior's resolve, the individual. And God places his mark upon that individual with his very calling, the warrior's calling. The Lord himself is his commander, his or her commander. The individual is commanded by the Lord himself. And then in an expanded way, God is the commander of spiritual armies and human battles.

And I assure you they take place at the same time. If there is a human battle being waged on the surface of planet earth, there is a spiritual battle being waged in the heavenly realm and those battles are being fought in a spiritual sense by basically spiritual armies so that what is seen in heaven is reflected in the earth when we pray, actually because we pray. What is the intention here? What are those spiritual armies for? Why are they aiding and helping those who are fighting in the human battle? It is God's plan to install righteous rule. It's his will. It is his will. It is his will that all rule be righteous rule. And if not, then his plan and his intention is to overthrow corruption, to overthrow evil and plant, establish and install righteous rule.

And then to defend it, to defend that righteous rule. It's God alone who defines war. He alone defines peace, what that is, what those look like. And for every righteous cause, it is God himself who teaches our hands to war. He teaches our hands to war spiritually and also physically. He gives to the warrior's heart strength and he gives to this defender wisdom but also not just wisdom, divine counsel. And that counsel includes when to go up to battle and when not to. That divine counsel is when to avoid battle and when to boldly engage. This is the warrior's calling. This is the warrior's provision from the Lord. This is his counsel to the individual and to the collective army administered through those who lead, generals and those in authority. And this is so key to our understanding of this calling that God has warned us in our heart not to trust in war, not to trust in weapons of war, but he points us instead to that future day that we've already touched on when men will no longer learn war.

There won't need to be war in that future day. But until then, we honor the warrior protector of life, of liberty, and the pursuit thereof. And as well, we do our part, our part. Those of us who remain, we do our part and that part is prayer to Almighty God seeking the divine intervention that only he can miraculously deliver, seeking his sovereign hand to protect those who are laying down their lives in the service of any nation that has been attacked, that is being warred against, that is being threatened. This is the plan.

This is the plan. The warrior's calling and the calling of everyone else to pray like Rees-Hobel says, don't allow those boys and girls on the front, those young men and women on the front to do any more than we do here in prayer. We stretch out in prayers.

The Bible says, fervent prayer of a righteous man makes much power available. The original word for fervent is stretched out, stretched out. What does stretched out mean? It means stretched out.

When I'm stretched out in prayer, usually it's a face down before the Lord on a surface, whether it be a floor or any other surface. It is a provocative. It is the very depth of who you are and who you lay out your prayer and intercessions from that position and also in that verse makes much power.

The word is dunamis, the Greek word for explosion, explosive power, the word dynamite. So this is what God intends when these trouble spots break out in any part of the world. And it's so important to say here that nations pray for other nations. We intercede for those who are standing for a righteous cause. And we believe God, anytime that we stand, whatever your nation is, anytime that your nation is standing for a righteous cause, anytime you're standing in the gap against and believing God for divine intervention to be delivered from an immoral or a corrupt or a tyrannical government that is seizing the liberties and freedoms of the people, then we know that nations everywhere are stirred and prompted by God, who is the captain of the host, who is the leader of armies, whose intention is to install righteousness. I think of friends in other nations who I know personally who pray for my homeland.

Listen, they're as passionate for God's plan for us as we are. They pray that fervently. Without the strength that their prayers provide, we here in this nation could not continue to stand and contend for righteousness here in our homeland, nor be of help to those anywhere else who are battling likewise. And also, for those of you who pray for other nations, who pray for my nation, this is a personal prayer.

This is a personal word to you. Our prayers are with you and your nation. Wherever liberty is threatened, our prayers are with you. And they are for your call from God, the call that is on your nation. Our prayers are for the welfare of your people. We fervently intercede for you, believing God will deliver you and those who fight, your sons and your daughters who have to war to contend against evil.

Listen, we're all together in this cause. We are fighting this battle together again in stretched out prayer so that released we will see explosive supernatural power that can only come from Almighty God. Just compare what we see now in the world around us and how treacherous and threatening it is. Compare that to the Lord's prophetic decree that one day nations and tongues will ultimately join under His Lordship in His presence. That will be a fearful day for those who devise evil and who have perpetrated murderous threat against any peaceful or innocent people, innocent or peaceful, not intending any harm but being attacked for no reason except selfish gain. And today, today because we know that that day, that ultimate day is ahead and a prophetic promise, we step boldly into that future and we think like that. We change this atmosphere now presently by faith to conform to that future reality. As Mr. Howell said to his class, leave yourself, sort of come out of your present predicament and envision instead the Lord, the captain of the host of heaven with His sword drawn in the midst of the battle, out in the very center of the struggle. This is a solemn opportunity that we have to see armies and the contests that are taking place for what they really are and not just to hear or observe from afar but to engage. We gather spiritual portions here to sow there and likewise we receive a harvest of distant prayers and that harvest includes wisdom for what to do and strength to do it. So we honor the warrior, we honor the warrior's calling.

Freedom is God's gift. Defending that freedom often requires a high price for those who sacrifice to serve and the many that have laid down their very lives and will lay down their lives to protect foundational freedoms that every nation desires and cherishes. So this is our prayer. You can join with me in this prayer as we appeal to the Lord the captain of heaven's armies. Lord we do, we appeal to you, we honor you and those who serve in every nation as warriors. I honor the warrior serving in my nation to protect and defend my nation. We honor their memory, those who have laid down their lives for freedom, the freedom that I enjoy and we commit even more so to pray and to intercede for those now engaged, those now facing the struggle. We say God you are the strong protector.

You are mighty to save. We ask you God for safe passage for them today. We ask you God to expose and reveal your blessing. Make a display out in the open your blessing on every defender of freedom.

Everyone. Lord God bless every warrior and the warrior's calling. In Jesus name.

Amen and amen. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365 Day Devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.