Jesu, juva
The Wall You Built Without Permission
You’ve built walls. We all have.
Maybe someone betrayed your trust. A father who wasn’t there. A friend who stabbed you in the back. A woman who crushed your heart. So you did what felt natural, you fortified yourself. You put up barriers, locked the gates, and threw away the key. “Never again,” you told yourself.
Here’s the hard truth: those walls you built to protect yourself are now your prison.
We call it self-protection. God calls it self-destruction. Because every emotional, mental, and spiritual roadblock you’ve erected doesn’t just keep hurt out, it keeps Christ’s transforming power at bay in your life. It keeps brotherhood at arm’s length. It keeps you from the very relationships God designed to sharpen you, strengthen you, and support you.
The Kingdom Needs Warriors, Not Hermits
As men following Christ, we’re called to something greater than hiding behind our wounds. The Christian life isn’t about retreating into comfortable isolation, it’s about advancing the Kingdom, and you can’t do that from behind a wall.
This requires something every muscle in your flesh will resist: surrender. Complete surrender to the Holy Spirit’s work in the broken places you’ve been protecting. It means trusting God enough to let Him transform your closed-off heart into something open, alive, and dangerous to the enemy’s schemes.
But here’s where most men get it wrong.
The Tactical Difference: Defense vs. Fortification
Tearing down barriers doesn’t mean becoming naive or foolish. God isn’t asking you to be a doormat. He’s calling you to replace self-made barriers with God-ordained boundaries.
Think of it this way: In football, a strong defense isn’t about running away from the opponent, it’s about strategic positioning. It’s about knowing where the line is and holding it with strength and wisdom. That’s what boundaries are. They’re not walls built from fear and past pain. They’re strategic lines drawn by God that protect what matters while allowing you to move forward in His Kingdom purpose for you.
Barriers say, “Stay away from me.”
Boundaries say, “Here’s how we move forward together.”
Barriers are rooted in your trauma.
Boundaries are rooted in God’s truth.
Barriers shrink your influence and isolate you from the very men God wants to use to refine you.
Boundaries expand your effectiveness while protecting your walk with Christ.
Consider the football analogy again: A good offense takes calculated risks, makes forward progress, and scores. That requires crossing the line. The defense that only retreats loses ground. But the defense that holds strategic positions? They stop the advance of the opposing team.
The Example Every Man Should Follow
Look at Jesus. The Pharisees loved their barriers, rules and divisions based on race, religion, economics, and social status. They built walls between Jews and Gentiles, the righteous and the sinners, the clean and the unclean.
Jesus obliterated every single one of those.
He didn’t just step over their barriers, He demolished them. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. He touched lepers. He spoke to Samaritan women. He engaged with Roman soldiers. Jesus crossed every man-made line that religion and culture erected because He understood something the Pharisees didn’t:
Barriers are man’s way of protecting himself from God’s mission.
Look at Matthew 9:10-13:
"And it came to pass, as he lay at table in the house, behold, many tax-gatherers and sinners came and lay at table with Jesus and his disciples. And the Pharisees seeing it, said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax-gatherers and sinners? But he, hearing it, said, They that are strong have not need of a physician, but those that are ill. But go and learn what that is—I will have mercy and not sacrifice; for I have not come to call righteous men but sinners."
Jesus wasn’t reckless. He didn’t compromise His holiness. But He refused to let fear, tradition, or self-protection keep Him from His Father’s mission. He had perfect boundaries, rooted in complete obedience to God, but zero barriers.
Your Mission: Demolish and Rebuild
Here’s what this means practically:
Identify your barriers. Where have you closed yourself off out of fear rather than wisdom? What relationships have you sabotaged because you refuse to be vulnerable? What potential God-ordained connections have you avoided because someone in your past hurt you?
Replace barriers with biblical boundaries. Study what God’s Word says about relationships, fellowship, iron sharpening iron. Set boundaries that honor God and protect your walk with Him, not walls that keep you comfortable and alone.
Stop being a lone wolf. Masculinity without brotherhood isn’t strength, it’s pride disguised as independence. God designed men to fight together, not alone. The very barriers you think are protecting you are actually making you weaker.
Cross some lines. Who have you written off? What person or group have you decided isn’t worth engaging? Jesus engaged with everyone the religious people avoided. Are you more like Jesus or more like the Pharisees?
The Hard Questions You Need to Ask
Sit before God and wrestle with these:
- Am I building barriers or boundaries in my relationships?
- Do my “protections” serve God’s Kingdom or my comfort?
- Am I afraid of being hurt again, or am I trusting God to be my defender?
- Where is the Holy Spirit calling me to tear down walls I’ve built?
- What strategic boundaries do I need to establish to walk in holiness while engaging the mission?
The Call
Brothers, we’re in a war. The enemy loves it when you hide behind barriers of past pain, unforgiveness, and fear. He wants you isolated, ineffective, and spiritually impotent.
God is calling you to something more dangerous: obedience. Boundaries rooted in His Word. Vulnerability protected by His Spirit. Relationships that sharpen you into the weapon He’s designed you to be.
Tear down the barriers. Establish biblical boundaries. And step into the mission God has called you to, not as a wounded man hiding, but as a warrior advancing.
The Kingdom needs men who follow Christ’s example: uncompromising in holiness, unstoppable in mission, and unafraid to cross the lines that religion draws.
Be that man!
Blane
SDG
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