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A Mission-Critical Difference

Our military establishment is renown for its chain of command and well-defined structural components. For example, consider the Army. It is the sum total of its regiments. A regiment consists of two or more battalions. A battalion is composed of companies, a company of platoons, and a platoon of squads. Each squad consists of individual soldiers, who receive specialized training in some aspect of war, and are referred to as specialists. The squad is designed to meld the diversity of the specialists into one cohesive unit capable of conducting effective and multi-purpose missions. A typical squad might include an expert marksman (sniper), a medical expert (corpsman), a communications expert (radioman), a language expert (interpreter), and a munitions expert. While all of these receive the same basic training, it is the specialty training that enables each one to make a unique and mission-critical difference within the squad.

The vital and indispensable role of the specialist within the military is being accentuated once again as the United States continues to assemble its war machine in the Persian Gulf. We are referring in particular to the great number of reservists who are being called back into active duty. The Associated Press has cited Pentagon statistics which reveal that currently 37 percent of these former “weekend warriors” are older than forty. The Department of Defense is not commandeering them into service for sheer body count, but for the specialized skills they bring to the combat arena without regard for their age.

It is entirely appropriate at this hour to think of the local church as a squad of specialists that God has uniquely equipped for spiritual warfare. It is God’s design for each member to make a mission-critical contribution to the assault on the gates of hell, which Jesus said would not prevail against His Church (Matthew 16:18). The apostle Paul frequently employed metaphors of war to emphasize the spiritual nature of life in Christ as set against the principalities and powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:10-20). He also admonished Timothy to endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and affirmed before his death that he had fought a good fight (2 Timothy 2:3; 4:7). Blessed is that disciple in whose mind the concept of spiritual war was etched early on in his or her Christian walk.

Who then are these specialists? Well, the scripture identifies seven of them in Romans 12:6-8. God has specialized some members of His body with the gift of prophecy—the unique ability to forthtell the word of God in black and white terms. The prophets of old were both foretellers and forthtellers, but, in this age of completed revelation God’s prophets are expounders of the written word! They are spiritual snipers with a God-given ability to keep sin in the crosshairs and the church focused on the main issues.

The gift of ministry is the ability to perceive areas of need that are often overlooked by others. They are spiritual mechanics, who are motivated to keep the machinery of war running. What would the church be without this group of specialists? The gift of teaching enables its recipient to pursue expository depth in the scriptures, and to expound the truth discovered with clarity and simplicity. In some respects they are spiritual drill sergeants, whose job it is to instill within the recruit the what, why, and how of military discipline and combat tactics. The gift of exhortation is the ability to encourage and motivate others. The faint of heart are ill suited for the rigors of spiritual war. The exhorter seeks to light the fires of hope under the weak and discouraged, and render the assistance necessary to get them back to the front lines.

The gift of giving is an uncommon capacity for monetary generosity coupled with the ability to create wealth as a resource. No military unit can wage war without adequate financial underpinnings. The giver derives his or her greatest satisfaction from providing for such endeavors, and desires to function in virtual anonymity. The gift of ruling is an administrative gift that is usually coupled with a vision. They are spiritual gunnery sergeants who love to take charge (in a good sense), and see a mission through to its completion. The gift of mercy is the God-given capacity for both empathy and sympathy toward those who are hurting. They are spiritual corpsmen, who desire the healing of those who are wounded in action.

Brethren, America may be poised for yet another war, but the Church has been engaged in a spiritual life and death struggle for the last two thousand years. God has equipped every believer with a spiritual gift. It is high time for every Christian soldier to take his or her God-given specialty to the front lines of combat, and make a mission-critical difference for His glory, and for the furtherance of His Kingdom!

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