John Dyslin: His Mercy is More – A Love Letter of Restoration to Our Wounded Warriors, PART TWO

This is part two of a guest article by John Dyslin. For part one, please click here. Learn more at johndyslin.com, and use discount code Scout1 to save 10%.

  1. God has a special heart for warriors. Repeatedly in Scripture the Lord singles out warriors for salvation who undoubtedly walked blood-stained roads.  In Luke 7:1-10 a Roman centurion characterized by faith, compassion, and humility sought the Lord Jesus to heal a dying servant; Jesus “…marvelled…at his great faith (Luke 7:9),” and the servant was healed that very day.  In fact, that centurion – a Gentile at that! – was one of only two individuals in all of the New Testament noted by Jesus for having great faith.

At Jesus’ crucifixion, (likely) another centurion and other guards witnessing his death, the subsequent earthquake, and other natural signs, exclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54)!”  As was the case with Peter’s understanding of Jesus’ divinity earlier (Matthew 16:16-17), surely the Lord gave them this understanding so they might also have eyes to see and be saved.

In Acts 10 the Lord sent angels and visions to both Cornelius, a righteous, God-fearing Roman centurion, and to Peter, and orchestrated a divine appointment between the men, that Cornelius might know the Gospel of Jesus as the risen Messiah.  Cornelius’s entire household was filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized by Peter himself that very day.  That’s how far the Lord will go to rescue a warrior!

Without belaboring the point, I would be remiss not to mention Joshua, Caleb, King David and his mighty men, Samson, etc.  All knew transgression; all knew war, and had spilt blood; and yet all were saved, often miraculously by the Lord’s generous hand, straining forward into their lives to bring salvation, healing, and restoration.

  1. The Lord is Himself a warrior. Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, means ‘he who brings salvation.’  Yet, it was Joshua of the Old Testament – also Yeshua in Hebrew! – who led the mighty Israelite army into bloody battle after battle after entering the Promised Land against the demonic hordes of giants (a whole other story).  Later, when Joshua was about to destroy the city of Jericho, Jesus declared Himself to be “the commander of the armies of the Lord (Joshua 5:13-15).”  So, Jesus’ own archetype in the Old Testament was the commander of the Israelite armies – as Jesus was the same in Heaven!

And yet there’s more.  When Jesus came the first time – to pay the price we could never pay for our sins so that we might live – He declared that “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34-36).”  When He returns at Armageddon, He will come to “judge and make war (Revelation 19:11).”  He will “consume [his enemies] with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8).”  In the Day of the Lord, when wicked Babylon is judged by Jesus, the destruction of the wicked will produce a river of blood to the depth of a horse’s bridle running 1600 furlongs (Rev. 14:20).

Finally, consider this – by the Lord’s own Word, we know that “The Lord is a man of war (Jehovah ‘ı̂ysh Milchâmâh): Jehovah is his name (Exodus 15:3).”  And, “Who is this King of Glory? The Lord Strong and Mighty (Jehovah ‛Izzûz Gibbôr), the Lord Mighty in Battle (Jehovah Gibbôr Milchâmâh) (Psalm 24:8).”  Therefore don’t be surprised at His astounding, longsuffering, striving desire to redeem His warrior children!

Your warrior instincts are a type of your Father, in Whose image you were created – including His righteous warrior spirit against evil and the unrepentant wicked.

So…whenever you begin to think that the Lord wouldn’t understand the heart or deeds of a warrior, think again.  He truly is the Lord of (righteous!) War.

  1. The Lord needs warrior-hearted men to storm the gates of Hell. He who is forgiven much, loves much (Luke 7:36-50).  God bless those righteous believers who have been saved since their youth!  What a blessing!  But, truly the Lord needs in His earthly armies those others of us who like Paul will journey to the ends of the earth for His glory, fueled by our gratitude for the mountain of iniquity for which we’ve been forgiven.

God needs heavily forgiven, adopted children-warriors such as you, who will truly go ‘above and beyond’ to reach the truly lost, and to storm the gates of Hell.

Those who have been saved from their youth either won’t or can’t carry the load you’ll carry, or go to the lengths you’ll go, or brave the fortified camp of the enemy as you will, to complete those missions of the Lord reserved for the lion-hearted among His earthly host.  Perhaps because you so much more richly appreciate the weight of the burden Christ carried for you, and the awful, astounding price He paid so you could be set free, it is believers like you who the Lord assigns the boldest, most fearsome, most audacious missions to further His kingdom and bring Him glory.

I think it no coincidence that Jesus selected Paul – of all people! – to be His apostle to the world beyond Israel.  He knew – both because of Paul’s zeal but also of the heavy burden of iniquity He freed Paul from – how far Paul would go in delivering the Gospel, because they both knew how much he had been forgiven of.  The Lord can use that in your life too – if you’ll accept His free gift, and bend a knee to and serve Him who “came to set the captives free (Isaiah 42:7).”

  1. The Lord delights in saving those most lost and beyond salvation! Read (and reread!) the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).  The younger son – that’s you.  When he asked his father for his inheritance, he was essentially saying, “You’re dead to me.  Let me live as I wish.”  The father – a type of the Lord, of course – believing in free will gave him what he wished.  The son proceeded to wander far away in his debauchery, literally and figuratively, until he found himself where all sin leads, standing in the mire, utterly ruined.

And yet…note the father’s response as the son returned, destitute as all we who wander far from Him, planning to be a hireling in his house… “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him (v. 20).”  All these years, while the son reveled and squandered his father’s blessings, the father