Back in 2016, an unconventional and forward-thinking, new Army Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, began a riveting series of speaking engagements within the D.C. Beltway to both the academic and defense crowds using the unofficial title, "Miserable, Disobedient, and Victorious." The entire premise of the speaking tour was to highlight the rapidly changing nature of the battlefield, and the need for the US Military to lean into and embrace it. Most notably,
In 1914, “nations and empires marched off to their destruction, blind, blind to the changes in war,” said Milley. “Let us commit to not march into that abyss, blind to the changes. Let us commit for once, once in our history, to not be unprepared for that first battle.”
I remember listening to these back then and thinking, finally, someone up at the five-sided puzzle palace gets it. Milley's talks were cutting edge back then because what he was saying was bucking the Pentagon's tradition of always preparing to fight the last war. While he was talking about the realities of how quickly and unrecognizably technology was transforming the character of war (how we fight), it led one to believe that this coming change was so radical, that it could also change the nature of war (why we fight).
The nature of war describes its unchanging essence: that is, those things that differentiate war (as a type of phenomenon) from other things. War’s nature is violent, interactive, and fundamentally political. Absent any of these elements, what you’re talking about is not war but something else.
The character of war describes the changing way that war as a phenomenon manifests in the real world. As war is a political act that takes place in and among societies, its specific character will be shaped by those politics and those societies—by what Clausewitz called the “spirit of the age.” War’s conduct is undoubtedly influenced by technology, law, ethics, culture, methods of social, political, and military organization, and other factors that change across time and place. (Source)
What happens when war is not violent, but equally as disastrous? Information and cyber warfare can cripple not just a nation's defense systems, but it's economy as well. Considering how globally interconnected the world is today, a few keystrokes could have repercussions on the level of Gavrillo Princip's gunshot (i.e., the guy who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand which subsequently started World War I). Grey Zone conflicts have become the new normal from the Cold War to today, and these are conflicts that operate just below the threshold of armed conflict, but have been nearly as destabilizing to world order as open warfare.
Milley spoke of how we should not expect to depend on Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) from which to launch missions and return to, a clearly delineated chain of command, or even clearly delineated front lines. Nor should we expect any of the traditional trappings wartime deployments had previously afforded US Forces over the past forty years. Technology such as Artificial Intelligence, drones, lethal autonomous weapon systems, subterranean warfare, hypersonic missiles, deep-fake, and spoofing technologies would soon render the safety of traditional 'brick and mortar' forward bases, moot.
But that was then.
By the time he was promoted to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2019 by then-President Trump, something changed. He was not the same General I knew as a One-Star, nor, the one I had come to admire in 2016 as a Four-Star as the Army Chief of Staff. However, by 2020, something changed. Milley had lost that steely glint in his eye and seemed to become a haunted version of his former self. It was as if some unnamed Grima Wormtongue had gotten ahold of him and had been whispering poisonous politically correct ideologies into his ear while he was sleeping.
By the summer of 2020, Milley had come out of the woke-progressive closet as a duplicitous double agent of the political left. By the summer of 2021 (now under the Biden Regime), Milley oversaw declining recruitment numbers across the board, as well as the most disastrous military operation in the history of the United States; the failed collapse and exit strategy of the twenty-year Afghanistan mission.
Some would argue that even as he was the CJCoS, he had his hands tied by an incompetent president.
Perhaps.
However, that doesn't explain his Trump-era act of treason and underhanded dealings at the very end. Maybe Milley was always a closet progressive all along and just needed the right cultural-political conditions to come about so he could champion why Transgenders and gender-affirming pronouns are critical to a successful military. He went from being a forward-thinking, serious-minded, geopolitical military strategist, to a progressive, empty-suited, woke-clownster in dire need of eyebrow trim. This dramatic transition happened in just two short years.
Perhaps the deep state had some tantalizing blackmail on him and threatened to ruin him unless he started playing ball. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time a highly decorated General got caught up in some sordid scandal (e.g., D. Petraeus). Perhaps Nancy Pelosi was actually pulling Milley's strings and making him dance like a marionette.
There is another option though that I think is what most likely happened. As he moved away from the real world into the make-believe realm of D.C. politics (i.e., the Beltway), he had become enamored with the privilege and power his new positions of authority afforded him. In his fall from grace and reality, he succumbed not just to the trappings of his position, but to personal pride. He began to think it really was all about him. In so doing, he fell prey to the number #1 and #2 cardinal sins of being a Soldier-
Never believe your own hype
Never leave a Soldier behind
You're probably wondering at this point, why I am writing an article about a failed General, who will go down in history right below General Custer. It is because even flawed and foolish men can come out with some amazing ideas (however unintended) from time to time.
Miserable. Disobedient. Victorious.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
Most Christians have heard the term spiritual warfare before. However, most are only aware of it as a vague concept and even fewer are spiritually attuned to be sensitive enough to recognize when it is happening. The truth is, most pulpits are silent on the escalation of this battle that is raging all around us because they are prophetically tone-deaf. These pulpits don't understand the signs of the times, or they don't want to, either way, this lack of situational awareness is lulling their congregations into a false sense of peace and security. There is no seeming clear chain of command, nor fixed front lines. The enemy is running roughshod everywhere, and our pulpits are off doing a six-week series on living your best life now.
Let me put it this way, if the church pulpits were doing their jobs, ministries like mine (and many of the rest) would be unnecessary. But they aren't, so ministries like this one (and many others) are filling in the gaps and serving as the watchmen and watchwomen that God is raising up in these last moments of human history. But even if we set aside the luxury of Bible prophecy (which really is a blessing for our behalf), most pulpits are not even aware of the of spiritual warfare raging all around them. For those of us who are spiritually awake, the shift in our enemy's tactics is staggering.
Nature of Spiritual Warfare (this hasn't changed)
Satan hates you and will do whatever, say whatever, and use whoever he can, to destroy you. This has not changed since he began with Adam and Eve.
Satan is the father of lies, and with every murderous breath, always mixes truth with lies to introduce confusion and division everywhere he goes.
Satan knows he must destroy Israel (both the people and the nation).
Character of Spiritual Warfare (this is changing)
Since 1948, Satan realizes we are drawing nearer to the end, and with this weighty knowledge, he is becoming even more desperate. He is ramping up his efforts, which we can clearly see manifesting in our day in the marked increase in the legalization of wickedness.
Satan's forces (the third of the angelic host who fell with him, along with demons) are becoming much more aggressive in the tactics and schemes to oppress and oppose you. Given the above point, they seemingly have the upper hand now as the spirit of antichrist sweeps across the planet.
They are now willing to suicide their own key people/puppets they have been using/possessing up until now with carefree abandon, which is why we see formerly smart and intelligent people (people we thought were decent) being caught up in this antichrist agenda.
He is flooding the planet with wave after wave of technological advancements so as to expedite the tools he will need for that final week of years (Daniel's 70th Week).
He would have already (were it not for the Restrainer), begun genetically contaminating mankind again (see Gen. 6:1-4). In the interim, he is priming the technology necessary to do this instead (i.e., the coming mark of the beast).
I almost titled this article, How to Become Unpopular, Lose Friends, and Alienate Yourself in Three Easy Steps.
Be an on-fire, born-again believer.
Be a watchman looking for the return of the Christ.
Tell your family and friends about this. A lot!
I can guarantee you if you hadn't found this out for yourselves already, when you start talking about Jesus, and in particular, about His soon return, you are going to shed friends and family in droves. Unless you are blessed to come from a family of watching believers, I can almost guarantee you, that people are going to think your nuts and they will abandon you. It seems more the norm these days that while one (or two) family members might be spiritually awake, the rest are fat, dumb, and happy in their spiritual ignorance. And in that ignorance, they lash out at you for daring to disturb their momentary bliss. Our Lord Jesus Christ warned us about this.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 10:34-39
Not only has the topics like the deity of Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture, the Rapture of the Church, and everything else therein, been deemed foolishness to the world, but sadly, even within a growing percentage of the church as well. Satan is ramping up his efforts to fracture Christendom into even tinier fragments by ramping up the hostility amongst believers. He is turning, what used to be agreeable disagreeableness into open hostility. He is hammering the churches and smashing them into a thousand separate groups of believers (tactic- divide and conquer).
This rising hatred against true biblical Christianity (especially within Western Civilization whose foundation was built upon Christian-Judeo principles) is akin to the irrational and satanically driven antisemitism we saw rise at the turn of the 20th century. Of course, we know how that turned out. That spike in antisemitism led to the appearance of the Third Reich and ultimately, the Jewish Holocaust.
So where do we see this current anti-Christian movement heading?
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
Satan is, even now, in the process of desensitizing and dehumanizing anyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ. This has a two-fold purpose: 1) cause weak and phony Christians to bend the knee toward this spirit of antichrist, and 2) making it easier to justify the slaughter of those Tribulation Saints who will undoubtedly come to faith in the moments after the Rapture of the Church. Again, Christ warns the last four Churches in His Seven Letters (Revelation 2-3) who would all be in existence in the days leading up to the end of this age.
Thyatira: Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. (Roman Catholicism)
The church who prioritizes empty ritualism and dogma over a true faith is threatened to be cast into the Tribulation.
Sardis: Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. (Protestant)
The church which places its premium on lifeless orthodoxy, quickly finds itself dead and caught unawares at the Rapture of the Church.
Philadelphia: Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (Remnant believers)
Satan attempts to crush this church through corruption and political pressure, instead of crushing it, it refines it.
Laodicea: I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. (Western Christendom)
The church that rises in the vacuum of true Christianity is materialistic, wealthy, and primarily Christian in name only.
I've got news for the post-millennial proponents...there will be no great end-times revival prior to the Rapture. I've got news for the Preterists and Amillennialists who believe that we are now in the Kingdom and will continue to do so until somewhere way off into the distant future, God rolls up the sky and says "That's all folks!" They are about to be in for a rude awakening.
This is not my opinion. The Bible does not show a great end times revival, but a call to repentance and a chastening to those churches who either will not watch or don't feel compelled to prepare for what is coming. By prepare I mean ramping up efforts to evangelize, spread the word, and warn a lost and dying world that judgment is coming. Instead, we get rewarded with violence, ridicule, and quarantine from a growing population on the planet. From Satan's perspective, this is to make us miserable and give up. However, what they intend for evil, God will use for good (Gen. 50:20). From God's vantage point, this present persecution and oppression, is meant to refine us like how fire separates the dross from the precious metal (Psalm 12:6).
The end is drawing near, even to the door, and the spiritually blind calls us fools. Perhaps this is why the Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul write these words-
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:21-25
Even Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia would echo a similar statement nearly two thousand years later when he wrote:
God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools...and He has not been disappointed....If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.
As true, born-again believers here in these last days means you are going to increasingly bear the full "weight of the world" to either conform or abandon our already marginalized faith altogether. Satan LOVES to use family against you and your faith. Furthermore, Satan LOVES to use the world court of opinion against you so you feel weak, marginalized, and alone. Jesus summarizes this to the faithful church in Philadelphia by saying that they would have 'little strength' (Rev. 3:8). However, our weakness is made strong in Christ. As Paul noted in 2 Corinthians 4, that little strength means the following...
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. (vs. 8-12)
So let me bring this discussion to a conclusion.
As many of you already know, this feeling of having the entire world stacked against you is pretty close to the feeling of misery. This misery is intentional but from different perspectives. Satan wants you to be miserable so you will bend the knee and break your spirit. God allows this misery (to varying degrees) to get you to loosen your grip on this life and not get too comfortable in a world that is passing away.
As the world systems and governments fall one after another, into the embrace of this coming Beast Kingdom, it will increasingly force you to make a choice. No longer are "Christians" going to be able to sit idly on the fence playing Switzerland. You're going to have to make a choice, and possibly, a stand. Am I going to be disobedient to the world system that is increasingly anti-Christ, or will I be disobedient to God?
This world is in a physical, moral, and spiritual freefall. Satan is trying with all his might to bend the geopolitical and spiritual conditions to his advantage, but he is facing impossibly stiff resistance with the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit empowered church) still on the scene. However, this growing darkness means we (the Church) should be growing brighter as the world grows darker. Just realize the brighter you shine, the larger a target you become to our enemy. And know this...the enemy is not going to go down without a fight. Just remember, the devil may be currently running this world, but Jesus has already overcome the world (John 16:33).
So when things seem impossible, remember young David racing out to meet Goliath with the boldness of ten thousand men. When life throws storm after storm at you, remember Elijah and the soft still voice. When times become nearly impossible to bear, just remember this, Jesus has already won the war two thousand years ago on Mt. Calvary. The battle over our eternal destinies has already been sealed. What God is allowing to play out here and now, is the final scenes of our drama so that whosoever will, will come.
I'm not saying I wouldn't trade this time for any other, because I wouldn't. These are the days the prophets longed to see. However, I just think the reality of living through these times has become one continuous exercise in having my soul vexed on a daily basis. But as Jan Markell is fond of saying, what did we expect the last days to be like?
It's like this.
We live in perilous times. We live in the days of scoffing. We live in the times of the birth pangs. In fact, the times we now live in have never been more filled with fraught and peril. But despite all of that, we are victorious, not because of a political candidate, but because the blood of the Lamb has overcome the world (Luke 1:29).
And if you are in Him, you have overcome the world too.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:16-18
Maranatha!
P.S. The video seems to have been an amateur recording. However, if this song doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will. So turn up that volume and remember, the battle is already won!