Episode 20, "In the Trenches with the Holy Spirit" Series: "Step into His Presence"

Hello and welcome to Episode 20, “In the Trenches with the Holy Spirit,” in our series, “Step into His Presence.” This podcast is dedicated to our veterans as we celebrate Veterans Day, November 11, and all week. 

Our guest today is a veteran and someone we all know, Apostle Charles G. Wright. He will share a war story and his personal experience when he was in combat in Vietnam. This is the first time he will tell us about this event. It is relevant to today’s podcast because while we may not have been in an actual war, we have been in spiritual warfare. Let’s go to our interview.

Welcome, Apostle Charles. This is an informal interview, and you have agreed to share one of your experiences in Vietnam: being trapped in the trenches while under fire. Let’s give our listeners a little background on you.

You served as an infantry medic in the U.S. Army from 1966-1968. You are the recipient of the Bronze Star with “V” Device, the Purple Heart, the Vietnam Service Campaign Medal, and the Campaign National Defense Medal. We have previous podcasts about Apostle Charles, and we will share with you how to access those at the end of this presentation.

Apostle Charles, would you please share with us about your experience with the Holy Spirit and how he spoke to you when you were in the trenches under enemy fire?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Episode 20, In the Trenches with the Holy Spirit, in our series Step Into His Presence. This podcast is dedicated to our veterans as we celebrate Veterans Day, November 11th, and all week. Our guest today is a veteran and someone we all know, Apostle Charles G. Wright. He will be sharing a new account of his experience in Vietnam that we have not heard on previous podcasts. It is relevant to today's podcast because while we may not have been in an actual war like he was, we have been in spiritual warfare. Okay, let's go to our interview. Welcome, Apostle Charles. This is an informal interview, and you have agreed to share one of your experiences in Vietnam about being trapped in the trenches while under fire. So before we get started, I'm going to give our listeners a little background on you. You served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 68 as an infantry medic. You are the recipient of the Bronze Star with the V-Device. the Purple Heart, the Vietnam Service Campaign Medal, and the Campaign National Defense Medal. Now, for our listeners, we do have previous podcasts about Apostle Charles, and we will share with you how to access those at the end of this presentation. Apostle Charles, would you please share with us your experience with the Holy Spirit and how he spoke to you when you were in the trenches under fire from the enemy?

SPEAKER_01: 1:49

Good evening, Stephanie, and good evening or good day to those of you who are listeners. This podcast also covers in my journal or article about listening and hearing the voice of the Lord. Initially, when I arrived in Vietnam in January 1967, I sat with a number of other new people and other soldiers in Vietnam. We listened to a briefing that was given by a lieutenant. And he spoke a word and said that all of us would not go back home and that get accustomed to the idea that we would not all return home alive. But I didn't agree with his words. I did listen. I did hear what he said. But I also listened to the Holy Spirit inside of me who spoke in my heart and reminded me of my prayers before I arrived in Vietnam. God heard my prayers while I was still in the States before I arrived in Vietnam. And then some other person tried to tell me something differently. I said in my heart, no, I'm going home. All of my extremities will be going home with me because I have already prayed before arriving in Vietnam. I was assigned as a combat infantry medic with the 25th Infantry Division with the Manchu 4th Battalion at Cu Chi. Vietnam, later to Trang Bang of the province of Tay Ninh, which is near the Cambodia border. Well, one day we were assigned to go into a location called Boi Loi or Hobo Woods. When we arrived there, the area had already been sprayed with Agent Orange. Also, we were placed in a position to go on a search and destroy mission. However, By the end of the day, we set up camp. And in the camp, at least 100 men, we were kind of spread out a little bit. So I found a place that I could kind of bunker or hunker down in, and some call it a trench, some call it a ditch, some call it a foxhole, and I was alone. So while resting there, and the evening began to approach, I heard and we heard a fire coming from above. Someone, some enemy was above us to pick out anybody he decided he wanted to kill as a sniper. However, it's strange to me that he picked me. I could tell it was me because I could hear the bullet whizzing directly over my head. And in fact, you can lie down on your back, I did, and look up. because I wanted to see the bullets if I could. And you can actually see bullets flying, breaking through the air. You literally can see that. So this enemy was firing at me and I got a concern and I was afraid. I had a little bit of fear and I wanted to get out of the foxhole, get out of the ditch, get out of the trench and get in with somebody else. But before I could do that, I was lying there and I heard, here we go again, Hear the voice of the Lord. I heard the voice of the Spirit of God speak inside of me and say, if that man can stay in the tree and shoot at you all day, you can lie here and rest and wait until it's dark. And then you can get out of this ditch. So that's what I did. I heard the voice of the Spirit of God. And I'd like to encourage you, if I could, that no matter what your circumstances are, you will always be a target of the enemy, the devil himself. Okay, well,

SPEAKER_00: 5:33

thank you, Apostle Charles. I think that's amazing. It's amazing and just a little bit scary to me that whoever that was shooting at you had you specifically as his target and nobody else, just you. So I have to commend you for listening to the Holy Spirit, listening to his voice, and being obedient. Because if you hadn't been, you wouldn't be here today. I

SPEAKER_01: 5:59

don't think so.

SPEAKER_00: 6:01

There would be no Candace, no Cassie, and certainly no five grandbabies. But anyway, so how can your experience help our listeners?

SPEAKER_01: 6:11

Well, in your life, I would say that you should always be mindful of the God and the Holy Spirit. And you want to know how do we spiritually fight forces that make us a target. Well, just simply listen and hear the voice of the Lord. However, there should be some preparations made in your personal life. Ever before, always, we're encouraged to pray daily. We're encouraged to fast also. We're encouraged to stay on our job before the presence of God. God will back you up. As the term goes and the saying goes, he has your back. Yeah. Even if there are circumstances where you are a target from the enemy on your job, at church, or in your home, or relatives, friends, associates, in your neighborhood. You have different places that you have to live in a combat type zone, in your economics and in your home business transactions, in your mind, in your soul, in your spirit and false teachers, in your body, in your emotions. You need to listen and hear God's voice. You say, well, I don't listen and hear. Well, the first problem is you don't listen. First thing you need to listen to is instruction. I support this function here. Get into your secret closet with God. Get along with God periodically. He will speak into your heart and tell you to go pray. Go pray. Get away from people, circumstances, television, telephone, cell phone, anything that's going to be a distraction because God is calling you into a place, a secret place of the most high God. So Put on the whole armor of God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. But your resistance is a pre-preparation by being in the presence of God. Build and develop a relationship with your Holy Spirit who God has sent back for you to have in your life so you can have life more abundantly.

SPEAKER_00: 7:53

Thank you, Apostle Charles. So let us all remember that the Holy Spirit is our comforter. John 14 and 6 tells us this. He is our advisor. He's our instructor. He resides within us. And as Apostle Charles just said, listen to him. And if you don't know how to pray, then remember what Romans 8 and 26 tells us, that when we don't know how to pray, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. We all have spiritual warfare. Just as I said, we may not be on the physical battlefield, but we have spiritual warfare that we have to wage. And in Apostle Charles' case, his enemy was God. Invisible, those bullets weren't invisible, but the enemy that was firing at him was invisible. And it is important, as he's already said, to pray because we don't always know when we're under attack. And it is important to listen to the Holy Spirit and be obedient because it could make the difference between failure or success. And as we see in Apostle Charles's case, it made the difference between life and death. We can wait the enemy out if we listen to the voice of God. Stay prayerful, fast, seek God and consecrate yourself. Thank you, Apostle Charles, for sharing your experience and words of wisdom. Now, you may access other podcasts about Apostle Charles on our website at cgmissions.com forward slash podcast. And then go to the series In the Heart of God, Episode 30, War Angel. This is a completely different podcast. And go to the series More Than Conquerors, Episode 7. honoring our veterans. And you'll get more details on his experiences in Vietnam. And finally, if you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, today would be a good day to do so. Romans 10 and 9 says, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and to believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved. That is saved from a life of sinning against God to a life of serving him and spending eternity with him. Thank you for joining us today and join us next time for another segment on the Holy Spirit as we step into his presence. Now we have closing remarks from Apostle Charles on how you can contact us. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_01: 10:26

If you want to contact us or comment on this podcast, Please visit our website at cgmissions.com forward slash podcast where all episodes are available by category and series format. This is Apostle Charles. Until next time, God bless you.

SPEAKER_00: 10:46

Charles George Missions is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible. Donations may be made through our website cgmissions.com.