HELEN SANDERS
7-18-2020
BOOT CAMP OR AWOL?
I come from a military family. I have two older brothers that were career Navy. I was about ten years old when my oldest brother went into the service. He came home after “boot camp” to visit for a short time before he went on his “assignment.” Boot camp was where he got the “basics.” This is where it “separated the men from the boys.” He made it through as well as my other brother and they both served faithfully for many years. My oldest brother became a drill instructor at a naval training station, teaching the “new recruits.”
Many don’t make it through boot camp. They go there with great anticipations, but not all of them can come through the training. It is tough on these young lads, but they must be trained to be tough or they will fail when it comes to war. Many become homesick and just cannot follow through. Others go AWOL, which means absent without leave. They “run” from their responsibility.
It reminds me of the scripture in Luke 14: 28-29 which says,
“For which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him..”
The person in this scripture had not counted the cost. Because of this, he could not finish what he had started. Like the person in the military, they had illusions of what could be, but had not counted the cost to attain the goal.
There are many like that in the body of Christ. They start out but when the pressure comes on them, they go AWOL and quit. This is a sad state for many. They weren’t prepared. They were not equipped to build what they started. They didn’t count the cost.
So, how do we change this? I think there needs to be a “spiritual bootcamp” for every Christian, and especially for those that believe they have a ministry call. For every Joshua there was a Moses. There was an Elijah for Elisha. The scriptures tell us that the older ones should teach the younger ones. In order to have a strong army for the Lord, we need to have trained soldiers.
This is why God has called Russell and myself to a daily equipping of the saints via Facebook and YouTube. This is why we started a ministry school so that the saints can be equipped. What about you? Are you equipped to do what God has planned for you? Perhaps you do not even know what He has planned because you haven’t been taught or discipled.
It is time to get back to “basic training” because then we can win the spiritual war that we are in. We have lost too many that weren’t trained and went AWOL.
