Army Witness and Warfare

[ Download PDF Version ]

The zeal to bring the gift of eternal life—of which I have just described the death-resurrection birth—to others, thoroughly grabbed me in my
five army years. I started off a much better witness for Christ than soldier of my king and Country!

Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Gloucester Regiment, I spoke boldly both to officers and men; and my reputation spread in the officers’ mess. I started a Christian group, which I named “C.O.” for Commanding Officers, but also for Christ’s Own. As many as 30 officers at one time, and about 400 on the night before we sailed for France, attended meetings.

When we were at the front line, my commanding officer, a colonel, obviously did not like too much emphasis on “religion” and had his “nice”
way of handling it. One day on inspection he named my platoon as the most inefficient in his battalion. He told me right out that if l did not
improve, he would send me home to England in disgrace. Needless to say, this would be the supreme disgrace for a British officer in wartime.

He was about right in his military assessment of me, for I was certainly more efficient as a Christ witness than as a platoon commander. And it
was good for me, as it woke me up to the necessity of being efficient in my earthly calling as well as my heavenly! I did pull my socks up and reached the efficiency of Brigade Bombing Officer, though I was actually never given that position or the captain’s rank which would go with it. My zeal for Christ thus resulted in the colonel’s refusal to promote me when I was due for promotion, so that I never rose above the rank of first
lieutenant. There was the intercessory death.

In those early years of my discipleship, I was really a learner, crude in my efforts to witness and knowing little of the Scriptures. I even smoked and drank, because an older Christian officer—the only one I knew in the battalion—advised me to do so as an opening door to reaching men. Later I came to the conclusion that it did more harm than good by giving an appearance of worldliness.

There were some who found Christ, though I don’t know how they lasted. These were really preparatory and discipleship years, conditioning me to be quick to respond to my true life’s calling when the moment came. Our early intercessions are really more for our conditioning than results in other lives, though there were some.