Imagine a battlefield where you have been gravely wounded and are lying on the ground unable to move. You are in agony and you are dying and suddenly you see a soldier running towards you, reassuring you and telling you “don’t be afraid”. The soldier picks you up and carries you to a safe place. In this safe place you will receive special care, food, medicine and rest and there you will heal completely. How grateful are you to that soldier?

If we could see with spiritual eyes and understand the work Soldiers of Christ are doing in the world, we would see that battlefield. Souls are gravely wounded because they have offended God in so many ways and Soldiers of Christ are working with Jesus Our Lord to bring them to a spiritually safe place where they can be reconciled with God and spiritually nurtured and healed.

The mission of Jesus Christ is to save souls.   When Jesus died for us on the Cross, He chose to offer Himself up in atonement for our sins.

I spent many years teaching little children about Jesus and I used to tell them this story. Imagine that the children in your class at school have been very, very bad. They broke all the rules they were supposed to follow. The Principal of the School is very angry and he comes into the classroom to tell the students that now there must be punishment for breaking the rules and the Teacher steps up and says “I will take the punishment for the disobedience of my students; don’t punish them!” The students love their teacher for protecting them and for taking the punishment they deserved.

I explain to them that all of us are God’s ‘students’ and our Father in heaven is ‘God the Father’ and He is like the ‘Principal’ in the story. We, the students of God, are learning to obey God and to honour Him. Our Teacher is Jesus ‘God the Son’ who came into the world to teach us how to love. Jesus didn’t want to punish us for our sins so He offered His life on the Cross so we could be forgiven. And before Jesus died He promised He would not leave us as orphans and that He would send His Holy Spirit upon us so that through His Spirit He could live in us and help us to build His Kingdom on earth. And in this story the children come to understand what a wonderful teacher and what a wonderful God we have in Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Nothing is missing in the Divine Sacrifice of Jesus Christ!

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5: 8-11

The Sacrifice of God pays the price of our sins, but the problem is many, many souls are lying on the spiritual battlefield wounded unable to make any progress in their spiritual journey with Jesus due to their lack of faith and their lack of repentance.

This is why St. Paul said, “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness…” Colossians 1:24-25

St. Paul gladly worked and suffered to build Christ’s Church on earth. St. Paul suffered for the Body of Christ, the people who would believe and follow Jesus Christ, Our Lord. There is nothing missing in the Sacrifice of Christ, but there is still a great deal missing in the ‘Body of Christ’ even today.

We live in a world where there is too much violence, crime, persecution, hatred, discrimination and war. The early apostles described the end of days that would precede the return of Jesus like this: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3: 2-5

While St. Paul cautions us not to associate with such people, we must be praying for them that they too may become part of the Body of Christ receiving the saving grace which comes only from Christ Jesus.

Soldiers of Christ are always focused on one thing: helping Jesus to save souls!

It requires a special focus and a singular mindset.

St. Paul says, “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.” 2 Timothy 2: 3-4

Years ago I worked on a military training contract and the commanding officers I worked for told me this: “When we are not serving on the front lines, we are training for service.”

Because I was there to help them to develop a learning strategy they emphasized the importance of training: “Soldiers that are not well trained get killed.”

St. Paul spoke of the type of special focus good soldiers have and the soldiers I met were focused on training to be the best soldiers they could be.

So let’s focus for a moment on what our ‘commanding officer’ Jesus Christ wants from us.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”   Matthew 16: 24-25

Jesus never once taught us to pray “Lord please make me suffer!” Although St. Paul said “I rejoice in what I am suffering for you…” his primary goal was not to suffer for the sake of suffering, it was to build the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ and to endure whatever was required in that mission.

Jesus taught us to pray the prayer “Our Father” in which we say “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

Jesus also taught us that building His Kingdom would require denial of self and a willingness to carry our cross and follow Him.

I feel I have over the course of more than a decade learned what it means to lose your life for Christ in order to find it. In my case I chose to leave one profession in search of a new one that would give God greater glory. I realized that if I was to serve God I needed to study the Bible and God gave me a great spiritual guide by the name of Andrew Murray who Jesus worked through many years ago to write many amazing books like “Absolute Surrender”. I also read the accounts of many saints who showed me what perseverance and patience for the glory of God looked like.

I learned something that I believe is a mystery.

The more I focused on denying myself and trying to please Jesus, the more God indulged me with His love and grace allowing me to feel and enjoy His holy presence. In other words the more I tried to deny myself, the less I felt denied.  I had denied myself some income by leaving the world of business and God rewarded me by healing me spiritually and holding me close to His Heart.

During my time of spiritual nurturing, learning and healing I was upheld by the prayers of the Body of Christ, especially the many saints in our world that are giving their entire lives for the glory of God and in this way are building up God’s Kingdom on earth.

Many years have now passed since I chose a new life in Christ and it’s true that I needed to lose my old life in order to find a new life in Christ and the process began with denial, a lot of quiet time with Jesus and a willingness to accept the Crosses I had to carry and a readiness to forgive those that hurt me.

I invite you to stop and consider your life and ask yourself whether you feel you are denying yourself for the glory of God?

Is there something that you should be giving up so that you can live more intimately connected to Jesus? Are you the Soldier who is continuously training to be the best Soldier for Christ you can be by studying the Word of God? Are you involved in relationships that give God glory? Is everything in your life making Jesus smile?

‘And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17

We are all called to be disciples of Jesus Christ but you know the Scriptures: “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:14

God is waiting for His Body on earth to help Him to save souls and to carry wounded souls to Him for healing.

We do this when we teach others the Word of God and the Will of God. We do this when we pray for one another. We do this when we lift people up with our words. We do this when we forgive one another (especially when we don’t receive the type of apology we desire). We do this when we take time to reflect on the Word of God and train to be a Soldier of Christ. We do this when we worship and praise God in our Churches. We do this through our acts of charity and kindness. We do this by humbling ourselves, uniting ourselves to God and saying “Jesus I trust in YOU!”

Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:14

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34

I pray that you stop to ask the Holy Spirit to inspire you to take a deeper look at your life so that you can be perfected by the greatness of God’s love.

I invite you to stop each day at 3pm (in your local time zone) because three o’clock is the time Jesus died for you; it’s the Hour of Mercy.

Stop and take a little break and remember your Saviour Jesus Christ dying to open the gates of heaven to you. At this time pray for the mercy of Our Lord Jesus upon all souls, especially those gravely wounded on the spiritual battlefield who need to be taken into the saving, healing arms of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” 

Jeremiah 29: 11-12

Join The Mercy Movement that believes in the power of ONE Body of Christ praying together daily at the Hour of Mercy for the salvation of souls. God will answer our prayers and send His Holy Spirit upon our broken world for healing and restoration.