Train to Live on Mission – Week 12
Battle Drill #12:
Trust your Training!
Proverbs 6:20-35 (NAS95)
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the twelfth battle drill – Trust your Training! I have three military stories to help illustrate this battle drill of “trust your training.”
1) Night operations and the 200’ cliff rappel.
2) Air Assault operations and stepping out on the skid to rappel out of a Huey.
3) Airborne operations and jumping out of a perfectly good airplane (day or night).
Regardless of your level of training, if you don’t trust your training at the moment that it matters then you will not live on mission. You will allow the circumstances, your feelings, or your nervous system to determine your response instead of trusting your training. Let’s learn how we can train this battle drill so that you can live on mission today.
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life …
The verse ended in mid-sentence. To better understand how I am applying this text to learning how to trust your training as your battle drill for this week, you need to hear the rest of this passage from the Field Manual so I will continue reading from Proverbs 6 with verses 24-35:
… to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her eyelids. For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry; but when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; he must give all the substance of his house. The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; he who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out. For jealousy enrages a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not accept any ransom, nor will he be satisfied though you give many gifts.
We know what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
If anyone tells you that at any point in your Christian life you won’t struggle with your humanity and the effects of living in this tent (2 Corinthians 5:1), then they are placing a burden on you that Christ has not. Holiness is Christ in you, not your ability to live a perfect life based on a list of vices and virtues. The righteousness you have is imputed upon you through Christ’s victory, not one earned by a life of perfect thought life, perfect emotional stability, and perfect mastery of your body. The life we live is a life surrendered to the finished work of Jesus Christ, just as Paul commented about himself in Galatians 2:19-21:
For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
Apart from Christ you can do nothing, as Jesus taught us in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Additionally, as fellow members of His body, we need one another to walk in God’s will. Paul emphasized this in the body imagery of the church in Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
We need one another, more than we know! We need to walk in the way of Jesus Christ with one another and carry one another’s burdens. Just as Paul teaches in Galatians 6:1-2, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
A significant reality of learning to trust your training is to train as part of the body of Christ, and not alone, because if we are to do what Jesus, the head of the church, commands us, and please Him, then we must do it in concert with His will for our lives, collectively as the individual members of the one body of Christ. As Paul said in Ephesians 1:22-23, “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” That takes us to the third action item.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life …
Some of my favorite imagery in the Bible about our relationship with God is the familial language – we are sons and daughters of the King! I’ve already utilized the agricultural imagery of the Vine and branches, and the anatomical imagery of Jesus being the head and us being the members of His body, but now I want to emphasize, based on Proverbs 6:20-23, the familial imagery of God being our parent. Family relationships are commanded in Ephesians 6:1-4:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Parents, before you apply this to your children, you must first apply it to your relationship with God as your Father, where you are the child and He is the Father. His will for your life is that you mature in the discipline and the instruction of His Word for His glory! Therefore, you must learn to observe all His commandments, just as you expect your kids to know your expectations of them, not forsaking the Word, but memorize them and meditate upon them and apply them to your everyday life. As Psalm 119:105-106 teaches us as the children of God, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and I will confirm it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances.” Are you reaping at home what you are sowing with your heavenly father?
This is the tried-and-true way of God’s people, generation to generation, generation after generation, as instructed through the Shema and its instruction, as found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Why does the author of Proverbs 6 command his children to trust their training in the faith? Because their only chance at life and blessing is to live according to it! And their faithfulness to God will be tested in the hardest of life’s circumstances, in the most challenging of human emotions, in the greatest allure of spiritual idolatry, and in the seductions of human adultery.
That is why today’s passage was intentionally evocative and persuasive on purpose, because the battle is not won on islands of serenity with peace-time conditions, but on the beaches of Normandy where the distress and tribulation of spiritual warfare manifests at every level of human experience! We live in a war-torn creation; therefore, we must train to live on mission today! You must train yourself according to this battle drill to trust your training in righteousness just as Paul taught his protégé in 2 Timothy 2:1-5:
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
Building upon this imagery, Paul said to his protégé in 1 Timothy 4:7-8:
But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
Pray, then, in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Again, why does the author of Proverbs 6 command his children to trust their training? Because children represent their parents – you are image bearers of God! We are commanded to train ourselves to live on mission for God and the only way to do that is to put ourselves willingly and wholeheartedly under the instruction and discipline of the Lord, just as children are commanded to put themselves under the authority of their parents. We are to bind ourselves to Jesus and His commandments if we hope to live on mission. We are to “bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck” as Proverbs 6:21 commands. Jesus invited us to take on His yoke and live for Him, becoming like Him, and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30). This is the way!
Allow me to finish by praying over you a powerful passage from 1 Peter 2:1-12:
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
This is who you are, and this is the way of your life in Christ! As you learn to trust your training in God’s Word, you bring glory to God and you will lead others to know Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and they, too, will bring glory to God until the Day of His return. This is the promise of the Father, the provision of the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through you.