A Christian Warriors Greatest Asset

 I am going to write on something a little different.
In fact, today I am really addressing my article to all the godly men out there reading this at this moment.
Now ladies, I encourage you to read this as well, but a lot of what I am saying here is addressed to the husbands /fathers / providers. We are the protectors of our family and we should be standing at the ready to intercede and protect.
We are Christian Warriors.
As many of you know I am a "prepper" / surivivalist. One thing that I try to always teach is to maintain readiness.
Example, always have at least a 1/2 tank of gas in the car at all times. A full tank is better, but that is hard to do. Always have extra food, meds, supplies, everyday needs, etc on hand. This way you are not caught off guard and come up wanting.
The Boy Scouts said it best with their motto : Be Prepared
We need to be prepared because we do not know what tomorrow brings. But there is a lot more involved in being prepared besides having some extra food and supplies on hand.
We need to be spiritually prepared as well.
Imagine if you will our Christian walk equating to that of little energizer bunnies. We run around all day long, sometimes for weeks at a time on a charge. We keep going and going and going and going.
Sooner or later we need to recharge our batteries.
We find that we are losing our patients a little more often, mentally sluggish, mentally tired, hard to focus, lacking love, compassion, not enough kisses and hugs to the wife, etc, etc, etc.
We are like this because our spiritual batteries are low.
When our spiritual batteries are low, well that rolls down hill to our families and their spiritual batteries get low as well.
Soon everyone is like the energizer bunny running out of battery power.
We Need A Recharge
See we as leaders, as long as we are doing the right thing, living a right life, having the right fellowship with our Lord, that trickles down to our family and they are then able to charge their batteries off of us because we have been doing the right thing and in tune with the Lord.
So how do we charge our batteries?
By spending time with Him.
We do this in prayer (us talking to Him) reading His Word (God talking to us) and if we are able, fellowship with others who are like minded.
When our batteries are fully charged, God's power and love works through us and in that we influence and effect the world around us.

The problem is that we don't spend enough time with God, so many of us are running around on a half charge. Since we are half charged, our family is also half charged.
Now, if ever we are called upon to do battle be it spiritual or physical, we will want to have the full charge. It will make the difference...believe me it will.
What we need to remember is that we do not know when the battles will come, almost always we will be ambushed. That is the favorite tactic of the enemy as well as the thug on the street.
What separates the Christian Warrior from the common ghetto thug is accountability to God. Not "a god" but "The God", Jehovah.
Our strength, determination and fighting spirit derives from Him and His power working through us.  We are able to stand against quite a bit, but we don't do it in our own power, it is through the Power of God working through our lives.

Being prepared in the physical is important, but often we neglect the spiritual. We run our batteries down and then when the enemy hits us with both barrels, we buckle under the barrage of fire that the enemy shoots in our direction.
Men, Husbands, Fathers, I am talking to you. We are Christian Warriors. We know that we are facing perilous times. We clearly see that right is being made wrong, and is wrong is being made right.

In Ephesians 6:13 it tells us...
"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. "
We need to be wearing His armor daily so that we can train daily and get used to the extra weight it entails.
Time To Train
I am one who takes combative training. Why? Because I want to be able to stand and protect my family if and when the need arises.
I am involved with a group of people here in Texas and we often will meet on a Saturday and conduct what is called "Force on Force" training. What I really like is that a lot of this training is free and we get together to test out different tactics and really see if they work out or not.
In fact here is some brief info…
Central Texas Combatives Training Group: Source - http://www.combativestraininggroup.com
Often when we get together we will role play a scenario, most likely the Walmart parking lot and some bad guy is coming at you.
He may pull a knife, he may pull a gun, he may walk by you and do nothing.
But he also may walk by you and then turn around and ambush you.
Don't think this happens? It happens every day, in fact more often than people realize.
Now why am I going into this sort of detail and what does this have to do with prayer?
We train in the physical world honing our skills, why are we not training the spiritual?

The Mall Ninja
Let's look at a mall ninja. This is the guy who has all the cool gear and stuff. He never takes the time to train with all that cool gear, but he has it.
What chances will the "Mall Ninja" have against the thug in the parking lot intent on attacking him?
Pretty much zero chances to win.
Just because you may have a lot of cool gear, and until you wipe the dust off it and actually train with it, it will not amount to a hill of beans what you have.
When the battle comes to you, and it will, you will most likely fold under the attack.
Why? Because you do not train with the tools / gear that you own.
The same goes in the spiritual. Prayer is probably the greatest tool that we have at our disposal. It is prayer that will help keep our spiritual batteries charged.
In fact prayer is part of what strengthens the armor of God.
See, I get a laugh when I hear people talk about putting on and off the armor of God.
"Oh, just put on the armor of God and you will be ok Joe."
" The armor of God will protect you Bob, just put it on."
Folks, this is "Mall Ninja" talk.
See you do not put on and take off the armor of God as if it is some suit or something. If you are a born again, washed in the blood Christian, you wear it all the time 24 / 7 / 365.
The difference is the strength of the armor with which we wear.
Big Boys Playing With Swords
Here is a little story that some of you may have heard before.
Back in my college days I used to be involved with group that is called the SCA, also known as the Society For Creative Anachronism.
Those involved would role play as if they were living in the King Arthur days. They would wear armor of all sorts and go bash each other over the head with ratan swords. What is interesting is that today it is actually seen as a form of martial art.
Well, I was one of those guys who enjoyed beating each other senseless. Now to be honest I was getting beaten on more than I was beating on others.
At one of these events I happened upon one of the well known "knights" and struck up a conversation. One thing led to another and he let me hang out with him for the weekend, kind of being his "squire." See in these circles this was seen as pretty cool, specially if your knight was well known. Mine, he was well known.
See this guy was really into the SCA thing, he owned a complete set of full plate armor. In fact he built it himself and was actually world renown for his ancient armor work. Rumor had it that he has even worked on some of the armor that is in the tower of London. Yep, he was that good.
Well, I got a chance to try on his armor. It was about 50-60 lbs of steel wrapped all over my body from head to toe. Wow… it was pretty cool.
Now here is what was interesting. Here I am in this armor and he comes over and barely pushes me with his index finger.
I just about fell over backwards because I was not used to wearing so much weight let alone know how to fight in it. He laughed and kept me from falling over backwards.
In that short moment he taught me a very valuable lesson that still sticks with me today.
What I learned was that it was different for him because when he was out on the "battle field" he was running and jumping and hitting people with his sword, bashing people with his shield, going full bore. He was also often the winner of the tournaments and have been made "king" of the local SCA group several times. This is a very high position in the SCA and it also meant that you were a true warrior.
So why could he run around in this armor and I barely was able to stand?
Several things.
1 - He literally wore his armor everyday in one form or another, so it became a part of him.
2 - Because he and his armor were one, this "trained" his body. This in turn conditioned him and he was always ready for the fight.
See, the armor of God is the same way. It is not something that you just don't "throw on" and then think you are going to go out and do battle.
You need to train and live in the armor at all times.
Why? So when that evil day comes, you have done all that you can to train...and having done all, then stand and fight.

I say all this because prayer is critical along with spending time in His Word.
See prayer and spending time in His Word is what gives the armor of God its strength. It is what helps charge our spiritual batteries.
So knowing that we are wearing the armor daily, if we do not strengthen it, when that day comes to do battle, we and the armor will fail.
The armor will not protect us as much as it should have if our "spiritual batteries" were charged up as much as they should be.
Another point that I want to make is that we to also be in fellowship with other Christian warriors who love the Lord. This too is what helps keep our spiritual batteries charged to the fullest. This is because we then become accountable not only to God, but to other warriors.

Many of you know that we are living in the last days of the last days. We are sitting upon the razor's edge. Now more than ever we need to keep the batteries charged at full, the powder dry and ready for the fight.

We do not know when we will be called upon to fight, but when we do, we want to be completely ready, and not be that "mall ninja" who has all the cool guy stuff, but never trains. He will lose the battle and become a casualty of the battlefield.
The enemy, when he comes, he will most likely ambush us. So when the fight comes to us, and it will, there will be no time to "put on" the armor. By that time it will be to late. If we do not have the armor on at the time of the ambush, we will become just another casualty of war.
So I challenge you husbands, fathers out there to always be ready for the fight. The fight will come to you. What you need to ensure is that when that evil day comes, having done all, to stand.
I want to leave you with some scripture out of His Word...

Psalms 144:1 Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

Joel 3:9-10  Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: 10  Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

2 Timothy 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Finally, if you live in the Central Texas area and want to learn more about Central Texas Combatives Training Group, please feel free to contact me or go to their forum at….

http://www.combativestraininggroup.com

Age, sex, size, nor physical fitness shape matters. We have all sorts from all walks of life. We have had Sr. warriors in their 70's to warriors who have been sitting on the couch for too many years. Let's just say that it's hard to fit in the armor still, if you get my drift.

I welcome you to come train with us and in fact it is my desire to start holding training here at the Gano homestead.

You will have a lot of fun and will also learn your vulnerabilities. You will probably walk away with some bruise and welts from the air soft pistols too, but it isn't that bad.

The goal is to better ourselves so that we may be better to serve those around us.


In His Service,

Ray Gano
Husband, Father, Christian Warrior

2012 & The Fourth Turning Point

Welcome to the new year, the year of our Lord 2012!

It has been approximately 2012 years since the birth of Christ.

Last year was a hard year for Tracye and I. A lot of personal upheaval, hardships, seemed like one major hurtle after another.

But this year I feel like things are going to take a swing for the better.

Although when you look out from standing on the wall, it appears that the gates of hell have been cast open.

If you are one who believes all that Mayan 2012 stuff, well I can see why you have a "bummer" of an outlook.

As many of you now, I often tell people that I am not some prophet or anything like that. What I believe my task God put me on this earth for is to be a watchman on the wall.

If anyone has seen any of those great medieval battle movies, you always have the soldiers / archers standing upon the wall waiting for the bad guys attack the enemy coming from far off.

Now the interesting thing is that they see what is coming and report on what they see, they also help in defending the wall preventing the enemy from gaining access to the city.

Another point is that those down in the city can NOT see what they see, so it is up to those residents to decide will they believe what the watchman says and take heed, or will they ignore it.

Fast forward to today's Christian body and the job of a watchman is still is a very critical job. A watchman is not a fortune teller or soothsayer, they are just reporting what they observe from their vantage point.

Now depending on where you are "on the wall" your vantage point may be different. For example, If you are on the north facing wall looking north, well you can't see what is on the south wall facing south and visa versa.

But if you are a couple hundred yards one way or the other on the wall and the watchman 50 yards away sees something coming, you the watchman that is on the same wall, may have a little better vantage point than the guy 50 yards away. That little distance may make the difference. On the other hand you may only see bellowing clouds coming your way just like the watchman 50 yards away standing with you on the wall.

You both see something coming, but can't really make it out clearly.

Now I hope that you are grasping the picture that I am trying to paint here for you with the whole wall, medieval analogy, and such. It is what I see in my mind when I think of a watchman up on the wall.

2012 presents some interesting issues.

The entire "New Age / pagan / hippie /biblically illiterate" arena has been promoting this Mayan calendar, end of the world thing.

Thing is that those of us who do know God's Word do not have anything to worry about, well we do, but more on that a little later.

See we as born again Christians know how the end of the story because we all have read the book.

Nowhere in scripture does it point to or say that the end of the world is coming and that it is based all on some ancient calendar.

In fact the opposite, instead of the end of the world, we have a triumphant Messiah returning in victory and glory. He will do battle with His enemies and the enemies who have tried to destroy His people, Israel. He will come to fulfill all His promises to the world and depending on which side you are on, either will be a great and wonderful blessing, or your utter demise.

Now here is the watchman on the wall part telling you what I observe from my vantage point.

Several years ago The Barna Group put out a study that showed that only 6% of our nation believes in a biblical world view.

What is a "worldview"?

Your worldview is the pair of imaginary reading glasses that you wear all the time. It is through these glasses that you "filter" what you observe and then how you react based on your observations, filter and worldview.

Another way of looking at what a worldview is what you believe in, or where do you put your faith.

If you put your faith in the Dali Lama, well you will look at the world though those beliefs and faiths that the Dali Lama promotes.

If you put your faith in Allah, Joseph Smith, Gandhi, Maitreya, or who ever. You will base your ideas and actions upon those filters and bias'.

Now an atheist promotes not having a religion but they put their faith in themselves along with the humanists, agnostics, and so forth. Evolution, same thing, just another worldview that you base your ideas and faiths upon.

The 2012 Mayanism Worldview

As I was saying, if you do not have a biblical world view, that means that your ideas, ethics, character and faith is based on something else.

This means that since you are not grounded in the absolute truth, you will basically fall for anything put out there.

That is my concern.

As I have said only 6% of our nation is based on a biblical worldview. That means that 94% is NOT based upon a biblical worldview but some other view that is based upon a lie.

That means that 94% of the US population has the good chance of falling for this whole end of the world stuff that is being promoted and propagated.

NOW… lets be reasonable and say that of that 94%, who do not maintain a biblical worldview, lets be conservative and say only 10%, decides to buy into this whole Mayan calendar 2012 end of the world thing.

It's Math Time!

There are approximately 307,006,550 living in the US based on the latest census that was taken.

If you took 6% of that you would get approximately 18,420,393 people. That is roughly the same population as California's greater Los Angeles area.

That leaves approximately 288,586,157 people.

Now using our conservative estimates of only 10% of those who do not maintain a biblical worldview and are sold out to the whole Mayan 2012 thing with the world literally ending on Dec 21, 2012, that comes to approximately 28,858,615 people.

Now these people are completely sold out thinking that the world will end this coming December. Their worldview is totally guided by these filters. Thus their actions, beliefs, faith ect is all dictated by the world ending Dec 21, 2012.

That is 28 million people who see their life, world, entire existence being terminated on Dec 21, 2012.

Are you beginning to get the picture here?

That is roughly 28 million people who are sold out that their world is going to be no more.

If you had this sort of fatalist doom and gloom worldview, what would you do these last 340 or so days that you have left?

Man left to his own devices has no boundaries on what they will do.

Now, personally I believe that as time gets closer that 10% number is going to grow and more and more people's angst will get the best of them.

That is if they are not grounded in God's Word.

Now how many of those 28 million people are in government today?

How many are in critical roles, CEOs, movers and shakers, people of influence?

How many are literally crazy - 5150 nutcase crazy? (5150 is radio code for a lunatic)

Does the Dali Lama believe in 2012?

How about Opra Winfrey, Ted Turner, Bill Gates, maybe even President Obama?

How are any of these types of people going to react as we get closer to Dec 21, 2012?

It Only Takes 2%

When you look at any great revolution or social changing event, it was only 2% of the whole who lead the charge. Sold to their beliefs, they in turn sell it to the world and because of that, others (the sheeple) have always followed.

Nazi Germany, barely 2% were completely sold out to the Nazi idea, those became the core of the SS. The rest were mindless followers following the other sheep or those driven by greed and power seeking opportunity, the spoils of war, political clout, etc.

It really only takes 2% sold out to a cause to create an effective social change. History has proven that over and over again.

How will this year be changed if only 2% are sold out to Mayanism?

How fast will it sweep our nation?

What will the powers that be do to combat this? Will they do anything?

The Fourth Turning Point

Look at this nation and where we are today.

An EXCELLENT book titled "Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069" by Neil Howe and William Strauss is an amazing read.

Here is how Amazon describes the book...

Hailed by national leaders as politically diverse as former Vice President Al Gore and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Generations has been heralded by reviewers as a brilliant, if somewhat unsettling, reassessment of where America is heading.

William Strauss and Neil Howe posit the history of America as a succession of generational biographies, beginning in 1584 and encompassing every-one through the children of today. Their bold theory is that each generation belongs to one of four types, and that these types repeat sequentially in a fixed pattern. The vision of Generations allows us to plot a recurring cycle in American history -- a cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises -- from the founding colonists through the present day and well into this millenium.

Source - http://amzn.com/0688119123

The basic theory in this book is a simple one: simply look at how American generations behave as they age? When you do that, as Strauss and Howe have pointed out, you find that American generations behave with a certain consistency throughout their lives.

Thing is that this is not just an American behavior, it is called "Generational Dynamics" In this all major societies throughout history cycle through four major societal processes; Austerity, Awakening, Unraveling, and Crisis. (1)

This is what my good friend Jack Kinsella has written his latest article about as well. The title of that is "2012 -- The End of the World As We Know It?"

In this he talks about the follow-up book that Howe and Strauss wrote titled "The Fourth Turning Point - An American Prophecy."

What I find amazing is that here are two secular historians conducting trends research throughout the centuries.

But what they do not totally grasp, well maybe they dom but I am not sure is that what they promote as theory is also biblical fact.

See time is not liner as so many believe. Time is ciclical or circular. Scripture is very clear on this and it is Solomon who said…

Ecc 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Here is a great graphic that illustrates this idea.

The following is a picture of the generational cycles of "Awakening" and "Crisis" I think you will be amazed.

As I have often mentioned, it is believed that our nation entered into the time of crisis around 2005 / 2006. We are now 6-7 years into the crisis cycle and we have yet to peak.

What do I mean?

Every time of crisis has its peak. It is the turning point where that period of time starts moving from Crisis to the cycle of Awakening. (look at the above chart.)

Here are examples:

• War of the Roses Crisis- 1459-1487; Peak 1485
• The Armada Crisis - 1569 - 1594; Peaks 1588
• The American Revolution Crisis 1773 - 1794; Peaks 1781
• The Civil War Crisis - 1860-1865; Peaks 1863
• The Great Depression / WWII Crisis - 1929-1946 Peaks 1944 (2)

We entered our "crisis" period in or around 2005 - 2006. We have not reached our peak of the crisis yet.

When you look at what is taking place in the world and what scripture says, we know that no one can know the exact date of the rapture. So based on that we need to be spiritually prepared for his return at any moment and physically prepared to withstand in the event that He tarries for a while.

Why Might He Tarry?

1 - Over 1/3 of the world still has no idea who God is, Jesus or any knowledge of God's Word. We are told in scripture that our job of sharing the gospel is done when the "fullness of the Gentiles" takes place.

Scripture says…

Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

We have not been doing our job and in fact we have been slack in this area.

2 - We also know that the Lord is not slack and that he wants man to come to him. His Word supports that our job here on earth is not finished. We have many many people who do not know the Gospel.

In 2 Peter 3:9 we are told that God is "longsuffering" so that "any should perish" and that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

3 - God is The Creator of the universe and of man. He is also the author of time and space. His Word clearly states that man will continue to repeat himself over and over again. Looking at the cycles of man, the tribulation and the battle of Armageddon fall completely within the generational cycles. It does because God created us and He created the way we "tick". We keep repeating ourselves because of the fall in the garden and because it is in our sin nature.

Scripture says…

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

Folks, I am so ready to go home, right here right now. What we need to remember is that God is going to come for His church at His own timing.

But in the mean time looking a what I have presented you I believe that we need to prepare ourselves for hard times. Not only does history back this up, so does God's Word.

So many people are looking to the next future president to make the difference. Who ever the next president is, nothing will change. They will continue with the same globalist Luciferian policies that have been put in place by Bush, Clinton, Bush and now Obama. They have all been cut from the same bolt of Luciferian cloth, and two sides of the same coin.

We know this because that is what Scripture tells us. The world will rally behind a charismatic individual who will force man to either choose him, the antichrist, or choose Jesus Christ, the true Savior of the World.

So it is coming, but it is not here yet.

We still have a chance to make a difference in this nation. It will not be who we elect, the laws that we pass, or the technology we create.

The ONLY thing that will change the course of this nation is one thing and one thing only. That is the sharing of the Gospel and the repentance of Man.

You want to know the answer?

Scripture says…

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

But I do not see America doing this and this is my 4th point.

We want and yearn to go home, but we ourselves are slowing down the fulness of the gentiles by not doing what God's Word commands us to do…

Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

So what I recommend is that you start building your ark, just as Noah did so that when the time comes, you are able to stand and boldly proclaim the gospel. Instead of being trapped and dependent upon a system ruled by crooks, thieves and luciferians hell bent on ushering in their leader.. the Antichrist.

So, who do you serve.. Mammon or Jesus Christ, the King of Kings?

See, It will be your actions that will produce your fruit; (Matthew 7:20) or the lack there of, for we know that faith without action (works) is dead.

Me? I say … NO KING BUT KING JESUS!!

Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

By Ray Gano

Endnotes

1- 2012 -- The End of the World As We Know It? By Jack Kinsella

2- The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy by Neil Howe and William Strauss

Graphic "The Anglo-American Saeculum" from : The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy by Neil Howe and William Strauss, Published by Broadway Books - Page 50.