193: Forged by Battle – A Deeper Cut Series (Part 5)

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Aug 12, 2025

Delve into the compelling journey of David as a young outcast transformed into a warrior for God. Discover the importance of mentorship, as older guides initiate younger men into adulthood while cultivating a godly warrior ethic. Explore the balance between comfort and challenge, advocating for courageous living rooted in secure attachment to God. Hear powerful stories of everyday heroism and sacrificial love within families. Reflect on the call to fight for worthy causes while acknowledging unseen victories in relationships. Wisdom, strength, and identity take center stage.

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INSIGHT

Warrior Rooted In God's Character

The warrior heart is rooted in God's character and called to serve his people, not personal glory.
Morgan reframes warrior identity as stewardship, courage, and love under God's authority.

ADVICE

Practice Courage Through Formative Struggle

Practice courage by engaging in formative struggles that build skill and love for what you protect.
Aim to become a defender who would 'die a thousand deaths' for those entrusted to your care.

ANECDOTE

Mountain Rite Of Passage For Joshua

Morgan describes a rite of passage where men stationed along a trail marked his son with paint and counsel, culminating in a summit ceremony.
The event validated Joshua's warrior identity with older men's blessing, prayer, communion, and a sword presentation.

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“It is not about the greatness of the giant. It is about the greatness of God.” — King David

“Can one stone change the course of history?”

It is the question we reflect on when considering the life of David.

In his youth, he was an outcast—rejected by his father and older brothers, exiled to wild places to perform the demeaning task of tending sheep rather than the noble work of training as a warrior. Yet it was there, in the lonely hills—not with sword or shield, but with slingshot and harp—that God trained the warrior heart of David.

Through direct confrontations with both lion and bear, his courage and identity as a warrior for God’s people were forged, not in royal courts, but in the fields, watching over a flock totally dependent upon his protection and care. There was no audience to cheer him on, only the solitude of his own conscience and the friendship with the Creator of Creation. David’s heart was shaped—not for conquest or acclaim, but purely out of love for what had been entrusted to his care.

The wild beasts he faced were not only threats but also gifts from God—tools in David’s apprenticeship as a warrior king in training for God’s Kingdom. So when he would later rise to lead Israel, it was not as a tyrant adorned with crowns, but as a servant after God’s own heart.

How do we become the kind of kings who spend ourselves on a worthy cause, willing to die a thousand deaths for those entrusted to our care?

How do we become, as Chesterton put it, the warrior who fights “not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”?

How do we engage in the slow and steady process that trains us, like David, to become one of skillful hands and integrity of heart?

What does it look like for the warrior heart to be fully deployed in the exact context where our souls are invited to thrive—even in these modern and precarious times?

How do we become men who move toward healthy risk rather than avoid it?

How do we grow in courage and in our capacity to offer strength in ways that bring goodness and not harm?

What place does a warrior ethic have in the Kingdom of God?

What is the path and process for maturing the warrior heart within?

Join me along with another round of conversation with Grant and Nathan, as we take a deeper dive into the way of the Warrior—as apprentices of the truest warrior who ever lived…

It’s all been prologue. The best is yet to come.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan and Cherie