Caleb Perkins on being a Snipper, Sensing God's Voice, and Passion for others to know Jesus

Aaron Santmyire: 00:00:10

Hey there. Welcome back to the Clarity podcast. This podcast is all about providing clarity insight, encouragement for life and mission.

My name is Aaron Santmyire and I get to be your host. Today we have the phenomenal opportunity to have with us on the podcast Caleb Perkins.

Caleb was called in to be felt, called to go into the military and we get to hear a little bit about his story of serving our country and then serving specifically in the role as a sniper. And you know, I've never been a sniper, but I would imagine that's a high stress, high, you know, high stress environment.

And so I get to ask Caleb some questions about what it is like to serve and be in high stress environments and still be able to focus and sense what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. So get to ask him some questions about that, some great leadership questions.

Caleb also we talk about how he left the military and being a sniper and back into, back into ministry and how God is leading and directing him.

In this season you get to hear miraculous stories of how God has healed him, has touched him and used the stories and the things that have happened to him for his glory. So just really a fun time to sit down with Caleb. My friend Sean is the one that connected us. So shout out to Sean for connecting Caleb, Caleb and I.

And just really think you'll enjoy learning from Caleb and his wisdom and his experience and how he's taken those lessons and applied to where he's at today. Do want to ask you to continue to send in your questions for Backchannel with Foth.

That's where we get to sit down with Dick Foth and get to learn from him his years of wisdom and insight and just really enjoy spending our time with Dick. He always has a great, great answer to the questions that listeners send in and do want to ask you also to continue to subscribe to the podcast.

I know the podcasts that I subscribe to are the ones I listen to last. One last announcement is my book A Caring family comes out December 10th.

It's the book I wrote that I wish I would have read 20 years ago before I raised my kids, at least to the point that they're at. So it comes out December 10th. Well, there's no time better than now to get started. So here we go. Greetings and welcome back to the Clarity podcast.

So excited to be here today with a new friend of the podcast, Caleb Perkins. Caleb, welcome to the podcast.

Caleb Perkins: 00:02:31

Thank you. It's an honor to be a part of the podcast. Been looking forward to it.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:02:36

Caleb, it's you know, I've interviewed almost 300 people and not too many West Virginians, so it's nice to have a fellow West Virginian on the podcast today. And. But my friend Sean shared a lot about you.

But for those who've not met Sean and not met you yet, will you, will you share a little bit about yourself before I jump in asking you some questions?

Caleb Perkins: 00:02:59

Yeah. So, been raised up in the church since I was a little kid. Ended up Lord sent me into the military. Did eight years in special operations.

I was attached to 3rd Ranger Battalion out at Fort Benning, Georgia. I did six combat deployments overseas. I was in Iraq once, Afghanistan five times, and served as a sniper special operations section leader there.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:03:26

Wow.

Caleb Perkins: 00:03:27

Yeah, Now I'm doing evangelism.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:03:29

Yeah, you said that all real fast. And so majority of these people that are listening in are not, don't have the military experience that you have. So what does that all mean?

Combat deployments, sniper, what all does that look like for us?

Caleb Perkins: 00:03:45

So primarily the mission that I had in special operations was doing long range precision shooting, also reconnaissance. A lot of people look at sniper movies and they think, oh, it's, you know, it's all about the long range shot.

But we actually do a lot more intel gathering than taking long range precision shooting, though we do do that and deploying overseas in that capacity.

As a section leader, my primary job was training up other special operations snipers, making sure that they were ready for the deployment and then they would deploy. And for us, it wasn't like year long deployments.

When I tell people I was in eight years and did six deployments, they're like, so you were gone the entire time? We, we did three to four month deployments and then we came back and we would do a training cycle and then we do three to four month deployments.

I was deployed every year, though.

And then when we were there, our main focus was not occupying territories, it was going after high value targets and being able to take out key positions. So that was. That's primarily what we did. Wow.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:04:54

Well, I got lots of questions to ask you about how you maintain your cool under stressful situations. And it sounds like you have lots, you've had lots of stressful situations.

But before I get, before I get to those, you talked about being raised in the church, Caleb.

Is there someone that spoke into your life and someone that impacted your life spiritually or helped guide you along this, the path that you've been on from, from serving our country and then now working as, and serving as an evangelist?

Caleb Perkins: 00:05:23

I would have to say, hands down, that would be my mom.

My mother was one of the biggest influences in my life in my Christian walk, primarily because she was not a religious in the sense of just being a nominal, ordinary Christian. She was empowered by the Holy Spirit. So she spent a lot of time in prayer. The Lord spoke to her about many things.

And one of the things I can remember of my childhood that really impacted me is she challenged me. She told me, you know, to go upstairs, and I was probably 9 or 10 years old at this point.

And she said, go upstairs and pray until you hear God's voice. Because she believed that that was the key to success. Right.

Is that you being able to hear God's voice and for him to lead, guide and direct you was going to help you throughout everything in your life. And which I agree with, especially, you know, looking many years later, but definitely being.

Realizing the, the significance of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and being able to. To be led by the Spirit. I mean, that's, that's just key.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:06:35

Yeah. So, Caleb, how did that, how did that. The things that your mom instilled into you, how did that transfer.

Can you share maybe about hearing the Holy Spirit, being guided, Guided by the Holy Spirit when you're serving overseas in these high stress situations?

Caleb Perkins: 00:06:52

Yeah, well, I'll start a little bit before that. So the way that I got into the military, a lot of people ask me, they say, did you ever have a desire to go in the military?

That was not a part of my career path. I was going. I actually graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Glenville State.

And after Glenville, I applied to Marshall University for the master's program in psychology. I was going to go be, you know, Dr. Caleb Perkins, psychologist. God had other plans. And I am. I am day one at Marshall University out in Huntington.

And I'm sitting there and the professor's going over the syllabus on what is going to be required for the course. And as I'm sitting there, I hear behind me, you need to go into the army. And I look behind me, and it was this older gentleman.

I was like, excuse me, what did you say? And he's like, I didn't say anything to you. Different voice. And I'm like, whoa, okay, that's weird. And so I'm sitting there looking at the professor.

I'm like, what did I just hear? And then as he's talking, I hear it again. You need to go into the army.

So at this point, I'm like, pale white, you know, And I get up and I run out of the classroom, and they must have thought I needed to go to the bathroom or something. I don't know. But went back to my apartment with where my wife was, and I was talking with her, and she's like, how did the first day go?

use at this point, this is in: 2005

So there wasn't no chance of, like, are you going to be deployed? It's 100% you're going to be deployed.

And so then we took the next week and we fasted, we prayed, and I told the Lord, I said, if this is something you want me to do, my wife has to have peace about it, too, because we're a team. And as we fasted and prayed, she came back to me and she said, hey, I really have peace about this. I think this is what we need to do.

And it was so foreign for me.

But growing up, like I said, with that influence from my mom, it wasn't uncommon for God to change plans and be like, this is what you think you're doing, but this is where I'm going to take you. And so we had a piece about it, and we went in. And through that week, the Lord was revealing different things to me about what I needed to do.

And I heard Ranger sniper. And those are the things that I needed to go in and do.

And so I sat down with the recruiter, and he was talking to me, and he was like, what's your highest level of education? And I had a bachelor's degree. So he was like, so you want to be a commissioned officer?

And I told him, I said, can a commissioned officer be a Ranger sniper? And he said, no, they can only be a platoon leader of a Ranger, of a Ranger platoon, but they can't be a sniper in the military.

And I said, well, no, then I need to go do that. So I denied a commission and went in, in the enlisted side with a Ranger contract to go and be a Ranger.

Then when I went after I went through the training, which was extremely difficult, you know, most people say, oh, if God's telling you and sending you to go, it'll be rainbows and daisies. I don't. I don't read that anywhere in the Bible.

I'm like, if God's sending you, you need empowerment from the Holy Spirit because it's going to be the hardest. You can't do it in and of yourself. And so you need that empowerment and you need to be led by the Holy Spirit.

So it was very difficult, and I had to press in. People asked me how I passed the Ranger selection, and I told him.

I said, every morning I got up and I said, if a normal man can pass this course, how much more can I, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, knowing this is where God wants me to go? Yeah. And so I'm like, it's either, you know, death or I'm going to. I'm going to get this.

And we had 250 in our candidates for the selection course, and we graduated 30. And out of that 30, they sent 10 to 1st Ranger Battalion, 10 to second, and 10 to third. And I got sent to third.

And immediately after I graduated that selection, I was on an airplane a week later in Afghanistan because they had already deployed. So talk about going straight into the fire. That was. That was very exciting. Yeah. I was like, God, I hope I'm hearing you correctly.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:11:11

You know, Caleb, how did you maintain that courage?

Caleb Perkins: 00:11:16

You.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:11:16

You know, I often pray a prayer. God give me the wisdom to hear your voice, the courage to do it, and then to have the faith to trust you with the outcomes of that.

And what I heard you share was, you know, you heard God's voice, and that's one.

I think many of us will hear God's voice, but maybe we get in the middle of it, we kind of lose courage or we begin to doubt and not have faith in God. With way this is going, how did God guide you and how did you maintain that courage and that strength, those. Those situations?

As you walk through this process, I.

Caleb Perkins: 00:11:47

Think a big part of that is actually having the relationship with the Lord and having that instilled. Because I think when the. When God tells you your next steps or what you're going to do, I think the enemy just automatically comes in and tries to.

To bring that doubt and to hinder you from taking that step in faith with God. So definitely having that relationship. I call it like fine tuning the frequency because you can hear things, but you want to. You want to fine tune.

If you're one degree off of that, it's staticky, right? And I tell people asking questions is, okay, you can do that with God. You know, Mary did that. She's like, how is this going to happen, God?

You know, and he's like, well, let me explain it to you. Right? And so when you hear something from the Holy Spirit, Go in and be like, Holy Spirit. All right, what is this? Is this my own mind?

Is this my own heart? Or is this from you? Is this from the spirit, or is this from the enemy? Right? And. And then asking those questions, okay, you're showing me this.

But when in time? Like when he told me about going in the military, that was one of our biggest things.

We're like, okay, is this something in the future that is going to happen? You know, because I've received prophetic words when I was 9 and 10 years old from people saying, you're going to be a great evangelist.

You're going to travel to many nations. You see hundreds of thousands of souls saved. I'm nine and ten. That's not the time for me to buy a plane ticket, right?

And so it's like, when in time is this going to happen? But the Lord starts to prepare on our hearts and on our spirits ahead of time so that we'll be able to walk through it.

And it's definitely not going to be easy. It is going to be met with difficulties and there will be persecutions and trials and tribulations. But we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, right?

That when the chaos and the storms going around us, we can hold on to the Holy Spirit and be like, you know what? I'm going to trust you, Lord. And then. And I'm going to take that step because I know, I heard you. And I'm going to do this.

Everybody around you, you can say, you're crazy. You know, I've had that. A lot of times people are like, you're nuts. You're. You know that. I'm like, I'm hearing God. So I got to stay.

Ultimately, I have to stand before Jesus and give an account. And I'm not going to sit in front of him and be like, sorry, they said I was nuts. So I didn't do what you told me. No, that's.

That's not going to apply.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:14:09

Good word.

Caleb Perkins: 00:14:09

Good word.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:14:11

So the high stress environments, the majority of people listening in are not going to be, you know, they're probably not going to be a sniper like you. You know, you were.

What are some of the lessons you learned from being in those high stress environments as a sniper that you think would help somebody living in a country in Africa with high stress situations going on around them?

What are some things, Caleb, that you one spiritually, you know, that you think would be valuable for them to know and to walk through that and then just maybe emotionally and physically, how to. When they're in those stressful situations as they walk forward.

Caleb Perkins: 00:14:49

I believe that honestly, that if you, if you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you, right, the same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead now dwells in you. That that Holy Spirit that's inside of you is going to give you that, you know, that gift of faith and that courage to step out in it.

But we at all times, right, we have the ability to choose. So it's like, are we going to do it? Like, it's in us and we have the opportunity, but what are we going to do in those moments?

And I tell people, I'm like, listen, if. If the Lord has led you into a situation, it is not for your detriment. It is for your benefit, right?

It says, interesting in scripture that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And people are sitting there going, well, God's not going lead me into a difficult situation.

I was like, absolutely, God's going to lead you into a difficult situation. Why? Because that becomes a point of a testimony for you to be an overcomer and to see the captive set free.

Because you can't get a testimony without a test. And when you get into those situations, especially when your very life is on the line, that's when you.

You press in and you trust in and have faith in God and you are able to hear his voice and you have to. You have to pray, right?

It says that we need to have our minds transformed and renewed, and that has to be on a daily basis because we do have emotions, we do have our own thoughts, we do have our own heart.

And if we're not continually keeping those things in check and aligning with God's heart and his will, then we're going to be, you know, run astray in whatever direction we're going to do. My mom would say, you know, the difficult times that you get tested to see if you fall apart, like a $2 watch.

And, you know, and in those moments, it's like, okay, am I going to fall apart and crumble? What do I want it to be written of me in my life? Is it going to be having faith in God and being shown as a good and faithful servant?

Or is it, you know, falling apart in the middle of adversity? Because adversity is coming. Adversity comes to everybody. You, you do not get out of that because you're a Christian, right?

And I've heard many evangelists say that, hey, come and serve the Lord. Your life's going to be rainbows and daisies. I'm like, no, that's not true. It says that the world's going to persecute you for his namesake.

However, you have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to fulfill what God has called you to do. And that is the greatest thing that you can do on this earth. Right. If it was an easy path, everybody would do it.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:17:34

Sure.

Caleb Perkins: 00:17:34

But, you know, for us to give and show that glory to God, it is going to require sacrifice. And that's where we need to say, all right, I need to deny myself. I need to pick up my cross, and I need to follow him.

And on my fourth deployment, I'll share this, you know, kind of shortened version because there was so much that ended up happening.

But on my fourth deployment to Afghanistan, I was in prayer, and I heard, not audibly like I did in the Master's program where God sent me to the army, but it was that inward witness of the Holy Spirit that I would be injured, but not unto death. And when I first heard it growing up like I did, you know, if anything was slightly negative, I found it.

I'm like, I find that in the name of Jesus, that's from the enemy, you know, And. And then. So then I got up, I went and we did submissions, and I worked out and stuff.

And then the next morning, I'm praying and I hear it again, you're going to be injured, but not unto death. And my mom taught that if you hear something twice in prayer, you need to really pray on it, because it could be coming from the Lord. Right.

Everybody wants to say when they hear stuff from God, it's just. It's all glorious, Right. There are times when he warned you.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:18:47

Yeah.

Caleb Perkins: 00:18:47

ght to my remembrance. Isaiah: 54:17

Now, when I was younger in the faith, I thought that meant you're never going to have any weapons. However, it says there are weapons. There are things that are. That are formed against you, but they will not prosper. Which sounded to me right in my.

In my knowledge, in my head and my emotions, you're going to be injured, right? Weapons, but not unto death. They will not prosper.

So then I thought, well, if this was the enemy in fear, he would say, no, you're going to be injured, you're going to die. Your legacy is going to be over. And it's all because you serve this God.

And, you know, and that's kind of that voice of the enemy that tries to come to people's minds.

And I said, okay, Lord, if I'm going to be injured, I got my assault pack, and I put my Bible in it, my letters from home, my wedding ring, and I put them all in this assault pack. And my sniper buddy came into the room, and he was asked me. He's like, what are you doing?

I was like, well, you know, I was in prayer, and I heard from the Lord that I'm going to be injured, but not unto death. So when I get injured, bring this book bag to the hospital.

And the reason I do that is because when you get injured overseas, they normally get soldiers to pack all your stuff on this big Conex container. And then this plane goes to, like, Uzbekistan and different areas, and you never end up with your stuff. It's just. It just doesn't happen that way.

I would like to say that we have. Great. Unless you brought it with you and you left with it, there's no chance of you getting stuff back.

So I was like, I want this to come to the hospital with me, right? And he looks at me because he's not a believer, and he's like, oh, you're crazy. Crazy. And he's trying to be a good friend.

He's like, I know we've been in some heavy firefights and. And things got close, but you're gonna be fine. And I said, listen, I'm not afraid. I was like, this is what I heard.

If it happens, then bring this assault pack. And I outranked him, so that helped. And it's like, hey, if you don't do what I tell you, I'm gonna make you do push ups till I get tired.

And so we went on, and this was the beginning of the deployment. And then several weeks later, we get towards the end of our deployment, and we're getting. We're getting.

It's a week before we have to fly back to the United States. And what happens is another Ranger platoon comes in and backfills us. So we don't even do missions anymore.

We're just preparing our stuff to go back to the state. So we're. We're mission inactive, and I'm cleaning all my sniper rifles, and I'm.

I'm loading them up into the Conex container to get ready to ship to go overseas. And this private comes in, and he runs in. He's like, hey, Sergeant Perkins. It's like, yeah.

He's like, they want to see you in the talk, which is the Tactical operations center. It's like where we do all of our missions. He's like, they're wanting to spin us up on a mission. And I'm like, okay.

So I run real quick because I have all my stuff packed.

And they're like, we have two high value targets that are in close proximity to each other and they don't want to hit one with the platoon because the, that high value target will flee the area. We want to use both platoons and hit at the same time. And so I'm like, okay, now I'm scrambling. So I tell them what I'm going to do in the mission.

I go and grab my sniper rifle and my gear and I'm getting ready to get on the bird. And as I get on the bird, then it hits me. You're on one last mission. And so I'm sitting there and I'm like, okay. I heard from the word of the Lord.

At first I thought maybe I missed it, right? Maybe it wasn't from God, or maybe it was an Isaac. Maybe Lord wanted to give it to me to see if I was going to fall apart like a two dollar watch.

And so I'm sitting there and I'm processing it and then I'm thinking, well, the Lord didn't tell me about any of my other brothers that are on this flight right now. If they're going to be injured, I know I'm going to be injured, but they could be dead. So I start praying for them.

And so, Lord, I'm like, lord, I thank you for protection over them. I thank you that you lead, guide and direct them.

And as the bird flares, we'd run off the back of the helicopter and I get up into my overwatch position, which was on top of this tall building in the area. And I set in first. So that way I get set and then I call the assault force to come in onto the target building.

And while I'm up there, I always pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct me. And I'm like, you know, give me eyes to see, ears to hear. And I'm waiting for the assault force to hit. And it's 2:00am Afghan local time.

So it's pitch dark. We're operating under, under night vision. And they hit the door, they go in. The high value target is still in his bed asleep.

Like they got a picture and they're like, hey, Mr. Bad Guy, this is you. He's like, ah, you know. So not one shot was fired and they were able to capture the High value target.

And my secondary job as a sniper was to get down from my position and to call the helicopter to come back to pick us up. So I get down off the building, I move out to this open field and I check it to make sure there's no fighters in the wood line and stuff.

So, you know, you don't want to be the guy that call a helicopter in and the RPG hits it and blows it up, right? So I scan the area and I'm like, okay, this is a good spot. And when I.

After I scan the area, I write down the grid coordinate of where I want to call the helicopter in. And I'm getting ready to take a knee to make the call.

And when I kneel down, I knelt on top of a pressure plate ied, which is a wire impacted bomb, you kneel on it, two wires. I end up hitting the ground, my bells run and I can't see anything. And so then I end up getting a whole.

My sniper buddy comes and runs over to me and he's like, hey, Caleb, are you okay? Are you okay? And I'm like, I can't get my night vision to work. And he said, it's because the night vision's in your face.

My night vision goggles was blown inside of my eye socket. My face was split from the top of this part of my forehead down all the way to my teeth. Like this whole part of my skull was opened up.

And the medic runs over to me and he grabs my arm and he's like, got my hand. And I'm like, what are you doing, Doc? It's my face that hurts. And he's like, I'm taping your finger to your hand.

This finger had been blown off and was hanging on by a flap of skin. These bones went inside of my hand. And so the whole left side of my hand was. Was injured and the left side of my body was. Was burned.

They got me, long story short, they end up getting me on the helicopter, fly me to the first aid station. When I get there, the reports were, you know, I was going to be blind from my eyes.

They were going to amputate my left hand and that I'd be paralyzed from the damage that happened to my back, spine and legs. In 14 days intensive care, I was just praying and believing in God for healing. And I walked out off of the aircraft.

full function in my hand, got: 2020

When they got back from the deployment, they saw me and they're like, perkins, man, we thought you were, you know, you were blind and they were going to amputate your hand and you were paralyzed. And I was like, yeah, I was supposed to be. But God came in and intervened and he. He healed my body.

And from that healing, I was able to do two more deployments still as a special operations sniper.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:26:22

Went.

Caleb Perkins: 00:26:22

Did two more deployments as that until God called me and said, all right, now I've got this other work for you. I want you to step out into ministry. And so making that transition, being able to hear from God, I think that was huge.

And I've been able to use my testimony of what I had went through, you know, with the Lord. And the whole time in there, I. There wasn't a moment when I was like, doubting God if he was going to do it.

Because to me, I was like the EOD expert that came and did the investigation on the site, he said, from the width of the crater, the depth of it, and the type of explosive used, it should have blew both my legs off at my waist, and I wouldn't have lived to tell about it. He's like, the fact that you're able to speak is a miracle. And so my faith is rising. I'm like, that's right. Yeah. Spirit. Spirit filled.

You know, individual going out there, hearing from God, kneels on bomb should have died, you know, and it's in. And I'm very thankful for the Lord for that, because he let me know ahead of time.

And I tell people, I'm like, if you're in that place with the Holy Spirit where you can hear, then before those things happen, you. He will let you know, like, he'll put those things on your heart. But you gotta.

You gotta have a good ear to be able to hear that from the Holy Spirit. Like me first time I rebuked it, you know, it's like, you're gonna be injured. I bind, you know, can you imagine that?

Aaron Santmyire: 00:27:42

Yeah.

Caleb Perkins: 00:27:43

No, Lord. Not going to happen to me.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:27:45

So, Caleb, how did you. The courage. You know, you walk. You were walk the Lord, you encouraged you in that situation, but then to go return and back to that once again.

How did you navigate that? Because I think that, you know, many people are living in that or listening into this will be missionaries.

Maybe they've had a traumatic event and, you know, it's not. But going back to the field or going back to the place that God's Called them.

Caleb Perkins: 00:28:15

Yeah.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:28:16

Emotionally, that's. That's a lot to process. It's not that you don't count. You don't. You don't trust in God. But as you said, sometimes our, you know, our.

Our minds can get. Can play tricks on us, and it can be challenging. Any thoughts on that?

Caleb Perkins: 00:28:28

Absolutely. I would. So I. I like to use the analogy of our life being like a book. And so there's multiple chapters in this book.

So whatever chapter God has you in, stay in that chapter until he makes the transition in the shift for the next chapter. So the Lord told me that I needed to be there, so I knew that. So even after I was injured, I was not trying to look out of that place.

I was still maintaining that relationship with the Lord. And I knew that, okay, I'm still supposed to be here. There's a reason for that. And I needed to stay when he did.

I call it a transition, a failure to transition that a lot of people have when God wants to get them into another chapter. Either they stay too long or they leave early. And it's like, you need to hear from God and know the exact time because you're not.

We're not just, oh, he told me this so that I'm going to do that for the rest of my life. You don't see that anywhere in Scripture. Like, most of the people, they have to rely on that relationship.

And that's why it's critical, because there will be chapter changes. Right? The difference between the old wineskin and the new wineskin is that it had a failure to transition.

In a previous age, the old wine was new, right? But in time, right, there was a failure to shift and a failure to see. And so that's what I like to tell people is that when you.

When you hear from God on your assignment, on what you need to do, you need to. You need to hold that until he transitions you and he says, okay, you're now. You need to. You need to do this. You need to move on.

And I've seen that with Christian leaders, too. There's. There's many that for a pre. A. A certain time and period, they were called to be a pastor.

But then it's like God's calling them to either be a missionary or to go be an evangelist or whatever, or to go any form of secular place. But they're like, oh, well, if I go from being a pastor to real estate, then I'm. I'm somehow stepping out of ministry.

And I'm like, but if God's calling You into that, that advantage that real estate is going to be spirit led. So that's where God's calling you. So do that. That's not stepping down. That's stepping into what God has for you.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:30:50

It's a good word.

Caleb Perkins: 00:30:51

So, yeah.

And I, I think that not having that failure to transition and knowing the times and the seasons that you're in is, is going to help you to be able to make the right move when you need to. And even on that next deployment, I end up getting injured again on that next deployment.

So people are like, oh, those next two deployments were easy. No, they were not. I got injured again. And God supernaturally brought in healing and restoration in my body.

And, and it was just a testament that if, if God's calling you there and you're going to be, you know, you're going to have that hand of protection as you're listening and being obedient to him. Him. Right.

The opposite is, though, is that people think, because I had a friend in Uganda and he was talking to me and he said one of the big things that hurt their, their nation and their community that they're in is that the huge revival broke out in the 90s. And so after this huge revival move broke out, all of the young men said that their only way of, of serving God was being a pastor.

So all these young men became pastors and they, they did it. So he's like, so we've got got hundreds of thousands of pastors, but we've got nobody in real estate. We've got nobody in the community.

We've got nobody in this.

So the, you know, the, the Muslims and other opposition faiths are hindering the church on what they can do because they, they weren't led into that because they thought the only way that they could serve was, was being a pastor or a leader. Like that.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:32:18

Yeah.

Caleb Perkins: 00:32:19

But the truth is, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, you, you're already a leader. Right. Like, that's, that's the truth. You're leading somebody.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:32:28

Caleb. So transitions transition from military sniper, army sniper, to being evangelist. Could you share a little bit about that?

Caleb Perkins: 00:32:38

Yeah. So after I got out, I began with youth ministry, actually.

his one high school. They had: 1600

I gave my testimony and I told the, the It's a secular high school, not a Christian high school, you know, and I Told him. I said, there's no way for me to give this story because it was on. It was like during Veterans Day type deal. And.

And I said, there's no way for me to give this story without mentioning God. And I'm going to do a prayer at the end. And they said, it's your story. You do whatever you want. I said, all right. I was like, you bet.

I'm going to do whatever I want then. And so I gave them the story and I told him.

I did an altar call at the end and half of the school kids came down to give their heart to the Lord from it. And, you know, and that was one of those impactful things. And it wasn't just because of the numbers of the young kids that got saved.

It was them hearing what God has done and what he can do. And I tell people, I'm like, listen, I'm not special. I was like, I'm being led by the Holy Spirit. You can do the exact same thing.

God can have that relationship with you. He doesn't show no partiality. If someone's 5 years old or they're 50 years old, they got the Holy Spirit in them.

They can do great and mighty things through God.

And so after the youth ministry portion, ended up pastoring for eight years, when I was part time doing part time evangelism, I've been an evangelist for over 10 years now, but I did, I was a pastor for eight. And then the Lord, Lord wanted me to go full time into evangelism. And, and honestly, that is. That was a difficult transition.

That was more difficult than the transition from army to pastoring and being in ministry, because I was successful in it.

And, you know, it's like when you get the numbers and you get these things and people love you and God says, all right, you gotta turn that away and go do this. And you're like, but I'm doing good. And he's like, that's not the metric of success that I. I am looking at. I want obedience, right?

And so handing that over and stepping not down from that, but into what God has called me into.

But now I see even more because in this capacity that I'm in, I'm able to speak into a variety of pastors, leaders, missionaries, evangelists, and really give them a new perspective of encouraging the congregation to be led by the Spirit, right? We're not called to go and make Christians. We're called to make disciples.

That's a big deal because there's a lot of Christians out there, but there are A few disciples. And we need to have people led by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 14, those that are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

And that's the evidence, you know.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:35:33

Good, good, good word, Good word. So, Caleb, in, in this season of being evangelist, you also have a passion for the persecuted church. Could you share about that?

Caleb Perkins: 00:35:42

Yeah.

So I have been fortunate that the Lord has led me over to the Middle east and Southeast Asia to go and to give my testimony, to minister and preach over there and to build up churches. The persecuted church has a.

I have a heart for them because one, I want them to understand because it's more, I think it's, it's crucial for everybody to be led by the Spirit Spirit. But more so when you're in a persecuted area, you have to hear from the Holy Spirit so closely because literally your next day, that could be it.

I've been to Nepal, India, Pakistan, that, that's kind of our, the primary focus of the ministry. Not that I don't go to other nations. I have. It's just those areas. We built churches over there, we built orphanages.

We've been able to rescue people out of sex trafficking and slavery and really see their lives impacted over there.

And when I was over there, we would sit down and we would have a meal, and they're just weeping over their meal and not because it's like, you know, they're not going to eat again type deal, but it's like, we might not fellowship again. Someone at this table is not going to be here the next time that we meet. And so they make it very serious. Right.

In America, I think American Christianity, we get a lot of comforts. And so, you know, we're not concerned about, you know, heavily persecution, heavy persecution and those things.

I ordained a minister overseas in Pakistan, and we were doing this big ordination service and there was probably 80, 80 ministers that were there. And I was praying for this one individual. He was a young man in his 20s.

And the, the Lord told me that he was going to have a short ministry, but it will be impactful and it will go on for generations. And I didn't want to give that word because I was like, man, that's a, like, to me, that sounds like a bad word.

So I'm going through this interpreter and I'm praying for him. And I told him, I said, your ministry is going to be short, but it's going to go on for generations, what you are going to, to do.

And I prayed for him and, you know, he's weeping. He says, you know, be it unto me. And as I'm flying back from Pakistan, end up landing in Qatar, because that's like the halfway point. Qatar and then.

Or Doha and. And then we fly back to the United States.

And when we land in Qatar, the host pastor that brought me in told, sends me this picture of that young man that I just prayed for and ordained. And he's hanging in a tree. The village. He went in to preach at this village because he felt the spirit told him to do it, went in there and they.

They hung him in this tree. And there's all these men around him, you know, sitting there, like, in anger, like, yeah, we hung this guy. And I'm crying.

I'm weeping in Qatar because I know. I know what God had showed me. And I was like, man, you know, and he. And the host pastors on the phone, he's like.

He's like, brother Perkins, why are you crying for him? He's with our Lord. And I said, I know he's with our Lord.

It just hurts me because I wanted to, you know, see him grow and develop, you know, and so when. So they left his body up there hanging and. And they left it up there for two weeks.

That whole entire village ended up converting to Christianity because it convicted him hanging in that tree. And, you know, and I often tell ministers, I was like, what if your call is.

Is Stephen's call, that you preach one message, but in that message, they stand for you like Jesus stands for you? And I was like, and Paul sees it and witnesses it, and what impact did it have on him for the continuation of the. Of the gospel? Gospel?

There's nobody that can tell me that Paul did not think about that that day.

And it's like, I want to have that courage and that and that motivation that even if it cost me my life, when you think about it, your life's but a vapor anyway, right? If you live to be a hundred years old, that is nothing in comparison to eternity. Yeah. Right. And that's one of the things I.

I really honor about the persecuted church, because they're not sitting there there, you know, telling people, I'm gonna live to be 140 years old. You know, they're like, I don't know how long I'm gonna live, but I'm gonna live for him.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:40:04

Yeah.

Caleb Perkins: 00:40:05

You know, and I think that that, that's the. That's the key. It's just, you know, living for eternity, man.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:40:12

Yeah, Caleb, one last question for you, and then I'm gonna Ask you to pray. Is there something I should have asked you if I was it? You have a podcast. You've hosted a podcast.

If you're thinking, if Aaron was a good podcast host like me, he would ask this question. Is there a good. Is there a question I should have asked you? And then I'm going to ask you to pray for it. Us.

Caleb Perkins: 00:40:29

You, you are a great podcaster. You, you, you ask great questions.

I would say if for the ministers and leaders that are listening to this podcast, regardless of the, the country and the nation that you are in, to recognize your identity in Christ, that is above all things. Because when.

So, like, for military, a lot of veterans, whenever they transition out of the military and they go into the civilian world, they have this separation because their identity was being a soldier and now they have to be a civilian. People do that in their occupations, too. They're a doctor now they're retired, so they're retired doctor. You know, they're this.

And I tell people, get your identity in being a son or daughter of God's, then he can flow and move through you as he needs to transition. I tell people also to look at their ministry as like a Swiss army knife. Knife, right? You're not just one thing, right?

When you need to be the knife, you can be the knife. But when you need to be the scissors, be the scissors. When you got to be the file, be the file.

Like, don't just put yourself in a box and say, well, this is all God can do with me, and that's it. So be led by the spirit, because there's going to be opportunities where you're going to, you're going to lead that younger generation.

And not all of them are going to be the same. They're not cookie cutter. And secondly, comparison is the killer of true identity.

So if a minister's out there and he's trying to imitate another minister, you're just a fake imitation of him. Like, you need to be authentically who God's called you to be. And, and do that to the utmost, right?

You know, nobody's out there trying to stutter like Moses and. But it's like he was an effective leader, right? And so I'm trying to, I'm trying to say be who God's called you to be.

And because when you do that, you're 100 who God's called you to be, you're walking in that. But when you're even 1% someone else, you're not 100.

You so definitely walk into that identity of Being God's sons and daughters and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit and encourage your congregations to do that too. Right? There's this hierarchy that's been placed in the, in the church. It's like, here's the, the blessed saints of God.

And then you have the, the laity, the lay people, and it's like, no, the Holy Spirit is, is wanting to empower all people. You need to have them hearing from God and the people that you're speaking to and leading. They can be the next generations.

Pastors, evangelists, teachers, missionaries, prophets. Like, come on, we need to train them up and build them up. Don't.

Don't let the, the lies of the enemy, even if it's money, power, influence those things hold you back as a leader. You know, look at the bigger picture and so into that next generation.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:43:22

Good word. Caleb, will you pray for us?

Caleb Perkins: 00:43:25

Absolutely. Father, I just thank you for this day that you have given us to live, breathe and declare your word.

And so, Lord, right now, I just, I just thank you for every listener that is listening to the podcast. Father, I thank you that you empower them, that they receive dreams and visions, that as they read the Word, that it.

It is awakened and al to them, they not only just read the words, but they receive an application on how to apply the scriptures to their life.

And Lord, those that would be in persecuted nations, Lord, I thank you that you give them strategic plans, that you give them that supernatural divine intervention and guidance. And that, Lord, if you tell them to stand up, they'll stand up to sit down. They'll sit down to speak. To speak. To hold their peace.

To hold their peace. God, I thank you that in all things they are led by you and Lord, that we all would come to the fullness of knowing you.

That we, when we stand before you, that we receive that well done, good and faithful servant. We just thank you and we praise you and we honor you in Jesus name. Amen.

Aaron Santmyire: 00:44:29

Amen.