Way of the Warrior - "You Are My Son"

Last Saturday on my regular walks with God, the Holy Spirit was impressing and loving on me a deeper meaning and revelation of just enjoying being the beloved, fully loved child of God. Living in the confidence that I am loved by my father deeply, and that is the identity of who I am. God is good, and He does good all the time (Psalm 119), so we have to believe in His goodness completely, without a shadow of doubt. The Holy Spirit showed it to me like a movie scene: the return of the prodigal son, and how his father, who has waited for him, runs towards him to welcome him, flinging his arms wide in an embrace. What the Holy Spirit was showing me was that the father was not concerned about "what his son had done", "where he had been, "what he had not done, or even giving an account of his squanderings. The father just wanted him to know that he is a well-loved, lavished son and everything in the father's house was his, and not for a moment had he lost favor in his sight.

A few months ago, I saw the movie Blood Diamond, set during the civil war in Sierra Leone. Solomon Vandy a local fisherman wants his son to study hard and become a doctor. The innocent son was a well-loved child full of life and fun. The family gets separated, and Solomon gets captured by the rebel forces to work in the diamond mines that are traded and syndicated with international diamond firms in exchange for weapons to continue the anarchy and exploitation of families. Solomon's son Dia gets captured and recruited to be a child soldier; the demon-possessed leader robs the child's innocence to drug addiction, training him to be a murderer and a rapist, and bestows on him a false identity. Meanwhile, Solomon Vandy has partnered with a diamond trader in hopes of rescuing his son and reuniting his family, in exchange for a rare pink diamond he had hidden in the jungles. Their journey crosses the camp where Dia, his son, is, and in the escape, the lost son points the gun at his father. Below is the key scene of the movie.

The father calls out the child's persona, his real identity, and, most importantly, calls him his son. Solomon reminds Dia that, despite whatever he has been made to do, he is still his son and that he loves him very much. The father reminds him that he is his father, what awaits him, and that he has come to take him home. The calling of the father breaks off all the shackles of hardness, chains of bondage, and most importantly, the heart of the son is called out from his addictions and crimes to be who he rightfully is. Dia, though broken. Tears rolling come into the embrace of his father. Innocence returned! real Identity restored! and a heart regained!

Our heavenly father does the same, because He is a just God and the justice has already been served in redeeming us by the blood of His own son. He now sees us in the righteousness of His son; we are covered by the blood of the lamb. He calls us out by the persona that He put in us when He thought of us even before we were conceived in our mother's womb. The enemy tries to rob our identity or sometimes keep our identity from us because when we know who we are in Christ, we are positioned to walk as warriors and take the gates of our enemies.

We are in warfare, and by the grace of God, we know who we are, and we are ready for battle. At the same time we enjoy being set up by the father himself a table full of refreshments and delicacies right before our enemies (in the midst of battle) because I know I am a well loved highly favored son.

Shalom & Blessings,

Sam Kurien.