SID: I have to tell you, everything you teach is through hands on experience. It’s not through theory, and I like that. You teach on wild courage. What does that mean to you?
KIM: God’s courage at its core is not fearsome, but it’s loving. And when we truly understand the depth of God’s love for us, that motivates, his love fills us up to the point where we are motivated and the byproduct is courage, and that courage motivates us into actions of love for those in our midst. My grandfather was an outdoorsman and a hunter and a fisher and a trapper, and he would tell me that when you’re in the wilderness, you need to be aware of your opponents, and when you encounter bears, and you will, you need to just look at the ground, turn a quarter shoulder and redirect, and that’s telling the bear, “I see you, I recognize that you’re the boss and I’m just going to be on my way.” And he was right. It works. I’ve encountered dozens of bears.
SID: I’m glad I haven’t, but I’m glad to know about it.
KIM: He would also say that if you encounter a mountain lion, and you never will unless you’re being targeted for an attack, you need to make yourself as big as possible visually and maintain fierce direct eye contact, and whatever you do, don’t back up. And he said, “But don’t worry. If you don’t act like prey, you won’t become prey.”
SID: How dangerous is a mountain lion?
KIM: They are the number two feline killer on the planet, and the reason their kill rate is so high is that they are a true ambush predator and they always attack from behind and take their prey by the neck, and they either crush the cervical vertebrae or pierce the carotid arteries. Either way, by the time you realize you’re being attacked, you’re already done.
KIM: I actually spend a great amount of time in the wilderness, and as I was walking along I saw something that caught my eye, and it was an antler tine sticking up from the forest floor. And to walk to the exact location where a deer or an elk or a moose has shed their antlers in the wilderness is so rare that I have learned that this is actually a covenant moment between my dad and I. What you’re thinking about, what you’re praying over, what you’re processing, what you’re grinding through, I’ve got that and here’s my covenant to you. And when I picked it up, I realized it was an elk antler, the first one I had ever found, and it was small. It was a five point about maybe 27 inches. Elk travel 20 miles a day. To find a matched set never happens. And its pair was laying right next to it.
KIM: And I picked them up and I was praising God, “Lord, thank you so much.” And I’m just marveling at this artwork that God has made, and then thought, “Oh my lord, what are you trying to tell me?” And what happened next is hard to describe. I could hear the voice of God the father saying, “I am so angry. The enemy has moved into my land and he’s attacking my people and he’s killing my children, and I am finished with his attacks. I am calling everyone who calls themselves by my name to stand up and fight, drive the enemy out of my land and take back the land that my son gave his life to defend. Take it back.”
KIM: And it was like stepping under a waterfall of imagery, and just overwhelmed by clashes of battles and swords and shields and sparks and rearing horses and a river and eagles and verses and this big stream, and then I could feel it as much as I heard it, a single word cut through. “Look!” And I felt like I’d been electrocuted, and I just stood up and 10 feet to my nine o’clock position, 10 feet away and right there was a mountain lion in full crouch waiting for me to take one more step to make this a true ambush. And it’s like your brain just falls into mud.
KIM: Am I really seeing, yeah, that’s really a mountain lion and yes, it is really targeting you for it’s next attack. And my first thought was, “But God, but God, I have nothing. I have nothing to defend myself.” And he shouted, “Yes you do. Raise the weapons of war that I have given you,” and instantly these antlers are over my head and 10 sharp tines are pointing down at this mountain lion, and I’m looking into these eyes that are so excited for the kill. The pupils were so dilated, they were completely black with just the narrowest band of gold. And I’m looking at this mountain lion and I hiss at it like, “I see you, I see you, I see you.” And this mountain lion hisses back, “And I see you and I’m going to kill you.” “Lord what do I do? God, what do I do?” And just this, “Attack, attack, attack.” And I just screamed and jumped two huge jumps at this mountain lion with 10 tines toward its eyes. And guess what it did. Absolutely nothing. Totally called my bluff.
SID: Oh no.
KIM: And all it did–
SID: I was expecting you to say it turned around and went.
KIM: That’s what I wanted it to do.
SID: I know.
KIM: All it did was get closer to the ground in a more powerful attack position and it totally called my bluff, and now we’re three feet apart and the scene just shifted. I am still facing a mountain lion that’s three feet beneath me. But now I am looking into the eyes, these black eyes of sin that stalks my life, and I’m hearing it say, “You’ve always known that I’ve been here. You’ve just never seen my face until today. You’re not really going to drive me out. You like it that I’m here. I want you to keep pretending like you don’t think I exist, and turn your back and walk away and then I’m going to kill you.”
KIM: And it was like this wave of ice and I just felt frozen and it made me so mad, and ice met fire, holy fire. And what came out of my mouth was, “Liar!” And I just screamed and jumped, and I’m going to drag these right through your head, and right before I hit the ground, this lion slid to the side and I went right into the ground, and I yank them out of the ground in this reload position and this lion is bounding down the hill and its tail is going around in this, “Uncle, she means it, and retreat. And the reason for sharing this encounter is that this encounter isn’t just for me.
KIM: Every one of us every day who called Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior face that predator. He is stalking you every minute of every day and Jesus is calling you to raise up the weapons of warfare that he has given you and take back the land of your heart, your family, and your community with the love of Jesus Christ, and drive him out of the heart and the home and the community that you live in with the love of Jesus. He gave his life to defend all those things, and now he’s asking you and I to do the same. Will you?
SID: And I say you are more than a conqueror. I say he that’s in you is greater than he that’s in the world.
KIM: Yeah.