Tag: The Heart Of A Warrior

‘A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.’ Luke 6:45(NLT)

Men are exhausted from being told,

“If you would just apply yourself, you would be better. But you really won’t get better because you are what you are—a sinner.”

This paradox, delivered so often to men in the church, tells men they can’t be trusted but need to try harder anyway.

Religious leaders who tell born-again men they are simply “sinners and a mess” and who then get mad at those men when they sin and make a mess—hmmm. How is that helpful?

Until the healing and training of men becomes the central mission of the church and not just one of the many ministries it offers, men aren’t going to find what they need within its walls.

Programs and service often land on a man like chores: he’s glad to do them (and needs to do them), but he won’t get Life from them. When sin plays on a man’s heart with guilt and shame, he will serve in the church out of a sense of obligation rather than freedom.

The gospel is about way more than just being forgiven for sin. Wonderful though that is, if we stop there, then we’re vastly short-selling the hugeness, the surpassing glory, of what God has accomplished through Jesus…

The gospel is about restoration, a future, and a hope.

Much of who a man becomes and what he settles for has been “learned” over time and through the shaping experiences and conclusions he makes during his life.

Can you imagine the sum of all our conclusions, all the beliefs we hold in our hearts, being accurate? Some of them, yes…but all? No way. We all harbor inaccuracies, lies about ourselves, others, and God, which we have learned to hold on to and all too often hold us. These lies arise from wounding moments, they then become ways in themselves, and our wounded ways infect us and in turn affect others.

It is therefore of paramount importance that we experience healing and treatment so that something glorious and good can replace the pain, guilt, and shame. Just as wounded hearts wound other hearts, so a whole heart can help other hearts become whole as well. The damage is reversed and the wound is redeemed. What was intended for bad, God makes good, so now what is passed down comes from the good stored up in the good and noble man’s heart. That is everyman in Christ’s TRUE IDENTITY.

We need to receive from God the good things we didn’t get and give to him the bad things we did get.

We need to experience the reality of being Beloved Sons; then we’ll be able to take our rightful place in the story God is telling and the part he has created for each man to play.

We bear the image of the Beloved Son and in turn are and are becoming Beloved Sons. God wants his image-bearers back so he can heal them, train them, equip them, and then turn them loose into a battle where many are waiting for the sons of God to enter the fight for freedom.

In your Time alone with God, ask Him:

Father God, what is in the way of me experiencing the reality of being a Beloved Son?

Jesus, what wounds; hurtful moments where shame, guilt and fear were the packages delivered to my heart, are still unresolved in my heart?

from The Heart Of A Warrior by Michael Thompson

‘You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!’ 2 Timothy 3:1-5(NLT)



In his book, Fathered by God, John Eldredge writes…

“…most men and most boys have no real father able to guide them through the jungles of the masculine journey, and they are—most of us are—unfinished and unfathered men.”

“Unfinished” and “unfathered” are two core ingredients of disorientation.

One reason I can often recognize another disoriented heart is because I lived in that condition for so many years. It doesn’t necessarily mean we had bad fathers. But it may very well mean that our fathers were themselves unfinished and unfathered men.

One sign of disorientation is a man who settles for being a servant of the kingdom rather than a Warrior for it. Service is not a bad thing but it is definitely not a great thing. Men don’t dream of growing up to be a servant. They do dream of becoming a man that matters, contributes, provides and protects. Being a son who serves is far greater than being a servant who isn’t a son. Service that originates from the wrong source, as it so often does, is in itself enough to anesthetize your soul. Duty-bound serving will take its toll on a man until life is either boring or irrelevant.

You can be a servant and not a Warrior. However, it is impossible to be a Warrior and not be a servant.

A man must learn the way of Life, which is the narrow road, and he must know the voice of the only One who can truly teach him how to be a Warrior. There is a language, an understanding, a path, and an experience that leads to a practice. That practice is a way of Life that every man must learn if he is going to be an oriented man.

One significant question each man must answer…

Can I trust the heart of my Teacher . . . is my Teacher good?

No matter how young or old you are, how inexperienced or experienced, there is One who wants to intervene in your life and take you on this quest for good. There is One who wants the significant role of teaching, loving, initiating, validating, and turning you loose into the world to be dangerous for good. There aren’t many men in training, collaborating with God, partnering in a glorious alliance of hearts. Look around you.

Loss of heart is everywhere. Loss of Life is extensive.

The situation is far worse than we thought.

But the Life that is available to you—the abundant Life hidden in Christ—is far better than you can possibly imagine. And it’s available to all who seek it out.

Two key ingredients of disorientation are being unfinished and/or unfathered.

In your Time alone with God, ask Him:

Father God, which one (unfinished or unfathered) has most affected my life story and journey with You?

Jesus, is there anything in the way of me believing that I can fully trust you as my Teacher?

from The Heart Of A Warrior by Michael Thompson

‘And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.’ Luke 8:15(NLT)

‘Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”’ Matthew 11:28-30(NLT)

‘Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.’ Proverbs 4:23(NLT)

From all that has happened to us in our lifetime, all we have encountered and experienced, we have drawn conclusions about life and how to make it work. We form our conclusions in order to protect and provide for ourselves. Like bricklayers constructing a house, we build our belief system brick by brick from our stockpile of conclusions. We consult our experiences to determine how the world operates, who we are in it, how to avoid pain, when to promote ourselves, and more.

All of these moments, and all the conclusions we draw from them, are stored in a precious place called the heart.

A man’s heart is engaged with his belief system regardless of his condition. Whether alive in Christ or spiritually dead, the heart is in constant danger of being compromised and wounded.

No wonder two kingdoms, Light and Dark, are at war over such a beautiful and vital piece of real estate. Is it any wonder that men’s hearts are in serious need of renovation? In our core, our center, are stored the attitudes, beliefs, and conclusions shaped by our experiences. These need God’s attention, because we don’t get by without being hurt, missed, or wounded in this Larger Story and at this central core of places.

It is with good reason that the Scriptures tell us,

“Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.” -Proverbs 4:23 HCSB

What every man has left unguarded for much of his life needs his and God’s attention. There are things growing there and wandering about that have gone unattended far too long.

There is a remedy for the false-self life from which we all suffer. There is another kind of life, another way of life, and it is almost too good to be true. Almost.

It is the life of a son of God, a Beloved Son, one who knows how to fight and knows how to rest, knows how to be loved and, in time, learns how to love.

The invitation for a man to see the things within himself that need caring for, and then brings those things to God for treatment and healing, is just another great day of training in the kingdom.

It was Francis of Assisi who said,

“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”

Overcoming the false self, to be exact—the outer layers of a man, both the good and the messed-up and sinful, that he mistakes for his deepest identity.

Things began to change in my life when I began to observe my false self. They continued to change when I let my true self, my core identity in Christ, take over my false self. Things needed to change.

Seeing what had to be overcome was a huge step toward actually overcoming it!

Some things need to be unlearned.

One of the first steps in our training is to circle back to what has already taken place in our story. What we learned along the way and why we have become the way we are requires our focused attention if we are to become truly free. Early in training, regular visits with God to explore one’s personal history are standard practice for men to shed the false self and to become true men.

You can start right now. Take a moment, grab some paper or sit behind a computer, and in your time alone with God, ask Him:

Father, who delivered the messages and materials that formed the beliefs of my heart?

Jesus, what happened to me that has brought on a loss of heart?

Holy Spirit, in my life’s journey, who inflicted hurt, guilt, fear, or shame? When? Where?

Find answers with God to these questions and you will find your false-self, the thing the enemy of your heart controls and the thing that opposes your life with God.

from The Heart Of A Warrior by Michael Thompson

‘For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord . “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ‘ Jeremiah 29:11(NLT)

‘And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”’ Matthew 3:17(NLT)



Possibly our greatest challenge is getting on the same page regarding the problem plaguing men. Men are casualties of an ancient and relentless masculine identity crisis. They suffer from a lostness that regenerates itself generation after generation.

I have a hope for men, a vision that fuels me…

I hope to one day see the hearts of men so foundationally settled, so well-trained, so well-equipped, and so well-engaged that when evil dares raise its head, Beloved Sons/Warrior men will know what to do, and will do it well.

In order for this to happen, a man needs to recover his true heart—the good heart filled with the life of Christ and stamped with his character that the Father gives his sons at rebirth. And he needs to experience that he is indeed the Beloved Son of a good Father. Then, and only then, can that man be shown and trained up into his Warrior Heart.

A Beloved Son is one who experiences the unconditional love of his Father in a way that deeply impacts him and leaves him with:

Nothing to Hide,

Nothing to Prove,

Nothing to Fear.

A Warrior is a Beloved Son with a settled heart who is then trained and equipped to engage in the life-and-death battles that are continually going on in him and all around him.

Being a Warrior involves more than force. It goes deeper: there is a deftness to it, an intuitiveness, and a gracefulness.

Warriorsare dangerous characters in any story and they can be lured into roles and causes that run counter to what a Warrior is made and trained to be. We see it every day in the headlines: men taking shortcuts, making compromises, stepping across blurry lines, hiding or striving. It is killing us. This confusion has resulted in what I call disorientation and is a forecast of what will continue unless an ancient way is recovered—because disoriented men produce more disoriented men, and the legacy of failure will pass from one generation to the next.

I hope to persuade men to remove whatever things block them from receiving the love God offers them: the love of a Father for his Beloved Sons. Then, with their ability to receive the Father’s love recovered, I hope to instill in men an awareness (over multiple encounters) of the ongoing training required to see disoriented men become oriented.

What does it mean to be oriented? An “oriented man” grounds his life and actions on three things: his identity, his environment, and his mission. He knows:

Who he is. In Christ, he is a Beloved Son of the Father.

Where he is. An oriented man has “eyes to see and ears to hear” what is going on around him. He is alert to the spiritual forces at work behind physical circumstances.

The Good that God is up to in his Life. An oriented man seeks to partner with his Father’s redemptive purposes. He looks for the good God is doing in and through his life, and he views his circumstances and relationships with an awakened and engaged heart.

Over time, the oriented way of life leads to a more settled heart—a deeper stability that comes from ongoing experience. A settled heart (a man who has nothing to hide, prove, or fear) doesn’t come overnight. Through deep renovation of the heart, you and I can become true men.

Make no mistake: training in the oriented life isn’t easy but it is good and it is always in progress.

In your time alone with God, ask Him:

Father God, what is in the way of me seeing myself as your beloved son?

Jesus, in which areas of my life do I need orientation? What is causing my disorientation?

from The Heart Of A Warrior by Michael Thompson