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The Art of Discipleship For Warriors (by Commander Barney Barnes)

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"The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is His name." Exodus 15:3

Suite: n, a group of things forming a unit or set. Webster’s

It must be clearly understood that making disciples is not just a religious activity but rather making disciples is an art form and a critical function in the survival of any culture. Each life is a unique canvass…not a production line. In fact, Ephesians 2:10 declares that we are God’s artistic masterpiece. So, discipleship begins with you and your decision to become a Christ Follower. Disciples are not mass produced even at conferences but rather are designed and developed one at a time from the heart up, rather than from the head down. A man’s heart is the primary target of the devil as well as the primary target of Jesus. If we purpose to get our hearts right with the Spirit of Christ, our minds will get in line with our heart, that is just the way Our Father has wired us. Thus, we design our warrior suite beginning with our heart, see Proverbs 4:20-23.

I was blessed to wear a “warrior suit” of one type or another for all of my professional life. This included over 24 years serving as a Naval Aviator, 12 years serving on the Sheriff’s Office command staff and as Chief of Staff and 3 years as the Commanding Officer of the 5^th Battalion South Carolina State Guard. In those cultures, you soon discover the important truth that all who wear the uniform on the body do not wear the uniform on the heart. This reminds me of a favorite quote from the great warrior Sun Tzu, “The warrior who wears two swords on his side but does not put the spirit of combat in his heart is nothing but a merchant wearing the skin of a warrior”. This may remind you of some men you may have encountered along the way, both warriors and merchants.

Our old pal, Sun Tzu, had incredible insight into the warrior ethos much of which has direct application into the Christian life of discipleship and spiritual warfare today. For instance, 1 Peter 5:8 reads, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” This is almost identical to the counsel of Sun Tzu who wrote, “The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.” Brothers, there is no greater unassailable position than The Rock of Jesus Christ. Psalm 40:1-3.

In fact, our old pal C.S. Lewis weighed in on the issue of “making disciples” and the warrior suite 82 years ago as he summed up our 2025 situation in his classic, The Abolition of Man. In 1943 he wrote: “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful.” In other words, we have created a culture with some spiritual eunuchs present. Lewis also skillfully confronted what he considered to be an opposing cultural force, the education of men, which is only exacerbated by our failure to “make disciples”.

In my view, we must develop bold, simple strategies and tactics to confront this influence in our day. Perhaps we should review how C.S. Lewis stated the issue in very simple terms: “…the difference between the old and the new education in a word, the old was a kind of propagation---men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.” Take a moment and consider that transcendent concept, “propagation---men transmitting manhood to men” …ergo, men disciplining men. Perhaps we should give our old pal C.S. Lewis’ thoughts a “Go” as we seek to evaluate and transform our propaganda saturated culture.

The warrior suite also contains “the warrior suit” which is the whole armor of God. It seems to me, from just anecdotal data gathered from 40 years of observing American church culture, that the following is often the case. We try to dress our men up with the whole armor of God with a lot of teaching about “the armor” but with little to no training with these six specially fitted pieces of “spiritual” armor. Any high school football coach would tell us that teaching without training is not the best way to prepare for game day. Our old pal, Musashi the greatest of the Samurai, gave us a 3-word key to success, “Know Your Sword” …ergo become intimate with your weapon, God’s Word.

In combat, a warrior quickly learns the value of intimacy with his weapon…of becoming one with his weapon. In so doing, the weapon becomes an extension of the warrior and of the authority the warrior represents. It is critical to point out that this is a Genesis Principle that we are introduced to in Genesis 14:14. Abram calls out his 318 trained men to participate on a hostage rescue mission. This was a very dangerous mission that would include a 90-mile march, dividing his men and executing a surprise night attack.

The Hebrew word for trained is chanik which means seasoned, trained and practiced. So, Abram did not say “every man come with me”, that would have been foolish and probably catastrophic. The writer of Hebrews seemed to know the warrior maxim that the use of a weapon, like God’s Word, was an acquired skill, as well as a perishable skill. In Hebrews 5:11-14 this maxim is laid out clearly and is why Abram chose trained/discipled men to go on the dangerous mission to rescue precious family members. Please pause, read, and absorb this essential text on maturity.

I had trained for 20 months to prepare me to be a copilot on my first combat mission. However, no amount of training produces the intimacy with the weapon and brothership with other men, like actual contact with the enemy. Making rocket attacks at Fort Rucker Alabama against a disabled tank on a sunny afternoon with your helicopter gunship is a bit of a thrill if you have never done that…the noise, the smells, the explosions. However, launching on a dark night from a remote base in Vietnam to repel an attack on an allied outpost is a bit different. For one, night vision lowers perception skills like in spiritual warfare, operating in spiritual darkness. For another, the tracers are very visible…the red ones are friendly, the green ones…the ones coming your way, are enemy. We can easily make a spiritual warfare analogy.

In fact, I believe this same principle is in play in spiritual warfare and in discipling men. There are no shortcuts, and we must fight through life’s issues together and in close, intimate contact. This is what Jesus demonstrated so well, how to invest values in men…how to love and disciple men. As C. S. Lewis reminded us earlier, men transmitting manhood to men---and more importantly Christlikeness, this is the warrior suite. It could be like taking a brother with you on an exciting hospital visit or simply becoming a part of a small band of brothers…like Jesus did it.

We do a lot of teaching…let us also purpose to do a lot of training and make 2026 a year of advancing the art of discipleship. Here are a few scriptures to become intimate with and “suite” up your training with, beginning with this “command guidance”, Matthew 28:19-20. Then we have: Galatians 2:20; 2 Timothy 2:2; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:10-18; and 1 Peter 5:8 to incorporate into our training doctrine.

Art of Discipleship Take Away: When the moment of truth has arrived the time for preparation has passed.

Written by Commander John "Barney" Barnes
Used with permission from Bravo Bravo Wisdom

To Equip & Encourage

The Art of Discipleship For Warriors (by Commander Barney Barnes)

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