May 26, 2025 • 14 mins
This podcast is dedicated to those who sacrificed their lives for our country. We remember them on this Memorial Day. Today, our guest speaker, Apostle Charles G. Wright, celebrates the life of his nephew, Xavier Johnson, who was killed in action in Vietnam. Apostle Charles will also share with us how Memorial Day was established. He will close this podcast with personal accounts of spiritual warfare, serving God while simultaneously serving his country.
If you want to contact us or comment on this podcast, please visit our website and select www.cgmissions.com/podcasts, where all episodes are available by category in series format. You can see some video and audio podcasts at:
www.youtube.com/@cgmissionsinc then select from the video or podcast"Playlist."
CGM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations may be made on our website:
https://www.cgmissions.com/donate-here-general-and-wecare/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to episode 10 in our series Stay in
His Presence.
And today we are going to betalking about spiritual warfare.
(00:22):
We are celebrating Memorial Day.
and our guest with us is ApostleCharles Wright.
We're first going to start outby honoring his nephew who lost
his life in Vietnam during theVietnam War and then we're going
to have a little bit of thehistory of Memorial Day by
(00:46):
Apostle Charles and then I haveasked Apostle Charles to share
with us at least one experience,maybe more, that he had in
spiritual warfare as a soldierin actual warfare when he served
in Vietnam.
So, take it away, ApostleCharles.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08):
Well, today I'd like to honor my nephew, a fallen
soldier at 18 years old who waskilled in Vietnam.
He found his destiny, which wasand is to be with Christ as his
Savior.
Xavier, while serving in theUnited States Army in Vietnam as
an infantryman of the 25thInfantry Division, which is
(01:32):
referred to by some as theTropic Lightning Division, he
received his salvation afterhaving an epiphany with an
angelic being on Easter, whichwe call Resurrection Day, and
the angel told him that he wasfighting his destiny.
Let me explain.
An epiphany is described as amanifestation of Christ to
(01:55):
Gentiles.
Well, Xavier was a Gentile.
And like so many of us in thisworld, most of us are Gentiles.
And we need to know what it isto be warriors for God in this
world.
Now, if you're not an Israeli,then you are a Gentile for whom
Christ was crucified,resurrected for you, shed his
(02:18):
blood on the cross.
Exactly.
at Calvary.
So Xavier experienced thestartup of his destiny to go and
be one with Christ.
So let's look at a little bitabout the startup of what we
call Memorial Day.
It was in 1865, after the end ofthe United States Civil War, we
(02:42):
should remember the forgottenhistory of how the Memorial Day
holiday started.
Yes, There was a 1865 eventcelebration of freed black
soldiers of the Civil War.
And this happened in, I believeit was Charleston, South
(03:02):
Carolina.
What they did was take theburied bodies of black soldiers
who fought in the Civil War andhad a parade, if you would,
because they wanted to reburythose gentlemen.
because they had experienceddeath for freedom and are not to
(03:23):
be forgotten.
Even today, in our manyorganizations today celebrate
Forget Me Not.
And in 1868, three years later,all American military units
began to celebrate what is nowknown as the national holiday
called Memorial Day.
However, each one of those menand women all had their last
(03:47):
supper at some point in timeduring their lifetime.
But it makes me remember whatJesus said at his last supper
before he was crucified.
He told his disciples toremember him.
So, He was a warrior himself, aspiritual warrior, showing us
how to live and how to die.
(04:08):
But don't forget Jesus and don'tforget our military men who
themselves died for freedom.
Jesus died for freedom so thatwe could have eternal life and
be free from sin and be freefrom the threats of hell.
Yes, there is experiences thatwe all have experiences in that
are not comfortable But we haveto learn what it means to be a
(04:30):
soldier for Christ.
Not only a soldier for ourcountry, but a soldier for Jesus
Christ.
SPEAKER_01 (04:37):
Amen.
Thank you, Apostle Charles.
That's very interesting.
You're telling me things that Ididn't know about as far as the
history of Memorial Day.
Thank you very much.
Now, I would still like for youto share with our listeners
something about spiritualwarfare that you experienced
(04:59):
When you were in Vietnam, Ibelieve that I guess the
juxtaposition of someone who'sin the military and they are
dealing with being a Christianand having spiritual warfare
going on, but yet still havingto go through actual warfare.
(05:19):
Of course, we've been marriedfor more than 50 years, so I've
heard many of the stories thatyou have shared so just any one
of those stories about somethingthat you experienced and it was
a real encounter with having togo through spiritual warfare
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
well when i first arrived in vietnam in january of
1967 one of the first thingsthat i noticed was that i was
fearful initially fearful andafraid because i didn't know
really what to expect I rememberwhen I landed in Pleiku, which
is in the Mountain ArtsMountains area in Central
(06:01):
Highlands, I believe it'scalled, they call it.
And the day before I arrivedthere, There had been an attack
on the campus and there was athreat of being overrun.
So that night, that very night,I decided to sleep with my
(06:23):
clothes on and my boots on andeverything.
I wasn't going to get undressedbecause I was afraid that
anything happened.
I wanted to be ready to run andfind some hole or ditch or
something to get into instead ofgrabbing clothes.
But anyway, it was an awfulfeeling to have fear.
However, I think my strengthbegan on the day immediately
following that we had an officerto tell us that all of us are
(06:46):
not going home, that some of uswouldn't leave the country
alive.
It bothered me to the pointwhere I thought to myself, no
way, I'm not accepting that.
Because then I had a memory totake place.
I remember praying before goingto Vietnam and telling God I
wanted to live.
I wanted to come back home withall of my extremities.
(07:07):
I told him I didn't want to comeback with anything missing in my
body.
And that's the way I stood.
I said I wanted to be married.
I wanted to have children.
I had a lot of things I placedbefore him in prayer.
And of course he did answer myprayers.
However, I had to experiencemany trials like so many other
young soldiers.
At that time I was 19 years old.
(07:28):
And when I got wounded the firsttime, which once is enough, I
remember helping to save thelives of other men who were in
combat at that day, April the2nd, 1965.
And most of the guys, many of usgot injured, hurt, But here's
the glory that I find in being aperson of spiritual warfare.
(07:50):
If you are owned by God and Godis your father, your spiritual
father, your heavenly father,you have been born again by his
spirit.
That in itself is a spiritualwarfare because you have to
surrender and give up somethings.
Now, can you imagine a soldiergiving up some things?
Yes.
Sometimes you have to give upsome things in order to be a
soldier.
I had to leave my family and goto Vietnam like the rest of the
(08:11):
guys who went there.
But I went there by faith.
Nevertheless, I did I didexperience combat numerous
times.
I don't care to mention how manytimes because I can't remember
them all.
But I experienced also thespirit of God's presence.
Anytime that we were going to bein combat, the Holy Spirit would
always reveal it to me indreams.
(08:34):
I would know the day or themoment immediately upon
awakening that we were going tobe sent into an area for search
and destroy, to seek out theenemy, flush them out, find
weapons, and so forth.
But I dreamed a dream that letme know that we were going to be
in combat.
So what had happened is I toldmy friends, I told them, I said,
(08:55):
hey, fellas, today I had adream.
And they said, no, man, we don'twant to know.
Don't tell us anything.
So in other words, God preparedme to be ready for the combat
that we had.
And yes, that's when I wasinjured myself in that
particular combat, along with awhole lot of guys.
But no, the glory of it all isthis.
no one that i was responsiblefor as a medic or corpsman no
(09:18):
one died we got injured we gotbroken bones some got what we
call the million dollar woundyou're going to be sent home but
you have your life you're stillalive and uh it's glorious i
must say that how god stayedwith me that whole time now i'll
leapfrog all the way to the veryend of my tour of duty in that
(09:39):
we were sent outside of our basecamp in order to do yes at night
a search and destroy missionbecause it was reported that the
enemy was in the area Upon goingout several kilometers away from
our barriers of that compound,suddenly we came under attack
and the enemy was behind us andwe went and stooped down to
(10:05):
avoid being shot.
And at the same time, oursoldiers who were in the
perimeter, on the perimeter ofthe base camp, they start firing
also.
So we were in a crossfireposition.
So the bullets were flying overus and while bullets were flying
over for five or ten minutesthings got quiet and then we
began to make moves again tocontinue our search and destroy
(10:25):
to find these guys who were outthere but I heard a voice speak
to me and said this is your lastpatrol now I didn't pay
attention to that because I wasintensely paying attention to
what was going on around me andwhat we could possibly run into
and then the voice said it againthis is your last patrol and I
did hear it, but I didn't, and Iwasn't paying attention.
(10:46):
And then it said it a thirdtime.
That voice said, this is yourlast patrol.
And when it heard that voice thethird time, I said to myself and
said what that voice said, whichwas the Spirit of God.
And I said it in conjunctionwith the Holy Spirit.
I said, this is my last patrol.
Little did I know that, yes, itwas my last patrol.
I had no more nighttime patrolsor daytime patrols except in
(11:08):
convoys.
Now, the beauty of it is this.
There is very little potentialfor anybody who's an experienced
warring soldier to be sent backhome before his tour of duty in
the, we call it, in the jungleor whatever, was over.
And that usually didn't happenuntil approximately maybe a week
(11:32):
or two before you'd go back tothe States.
In other words, you're fightingon the battlefield until a week
or two before it's time for youto go back to the United States.
So...
I was taken off of the duty tobe in combat and put on, uh,
convoy patrol during the daytimeapproximately two months before
(11:52):
I was supposed to be sent backto the United States and I knew
that was a miracle oh yes I hadsome other things to take place
in my life as well but I'll juststop at those two we need to
learn to listen to the voice ofGod even if it means to read his
word which is logos and hear thespirit of God which we call
rhema the rhema word of God whospeaks into our hearts our souls
(12:12):
our minds our spirit and causesus to have faith and believe in
him during times of spiritualwarfare Whether it's in your
heart or your mind, your soul,whether it's in fear or darkness
or unexpected things that canhappen and do happen, we can
always trust in God because hedid it for my nephew.
He did it for some otherfriends.
He did it for so many guys in myunit.
(12:33):
They didn't get killed, but theydid get wounded and they did
have some awful experiences thatthey live with today.
And I thank God for theorganizations like the Disabled
American Veterans and Veteransof Foreign Wars.
And we also thank God for thosewho are the wounded warriors as
well, because they gave part oftheir freedom to serve this
(12:56):
country so that you can be freeand celebrate Memorial Day.
SPEAKER_01 (13:03):
Well, thank you, Apostle Charles, for sharing
those experiences with us onthis.
You're in Vietnam and speakingof the Holy Spirit and how the
Holy Spirit spoke to you and howGod covered and protected you
during that time.
And thank you again for thehistory of Memorial Day.
(13:25):
Thank you for joining us today.
And now we are going to go backto Apostle Charles and he's
going to close us out and letyou know how you may contact us.
See you next time.
SPEAKER_00 (13:37):
If you want to contact us or comment on this
podcast, please visit ourwebsite at cgmissions.com
forward slash podcast, where allepisodes are available by
category and series
SPEAKER_01 (13:53):
format.
Hello and welcome to episode 10 in our series Stay in
His Presence.
And today we are going to betalking about spiritual warfare.
(00:22):
We are celebrating Memorial Day.
and our guest with us is ApostleCharles Wright.
We're first going to start outby honoring his nephew who lost
his life in Vietnam during theVietnam War and then we're going
to have a little bit of thehistory of Memorial Day by
(00:46):
Apostle Charles and then I haveasked Apostle Charles to share
with us at least one experience,maybe more, that he had in
spiritual warfare as a soldierin actual warfare when he served
in Vietnam.
So, take it away, ApostleCharles.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08):
Well, today I'd like to honor my nephew, a fallen
soldier at 18 years old who waskilled in Vietnam.
He found his destiny, which wasand is to be with Christ as his
Savior.
Xavier, while serving in theUnited States Army in Vietnam as
an infantryman of the 25thInfantry Division, which is
(01:32):
referred to by some as theTropic Lightning Division, he
received his salvation afterhaving an epiphany with an
angelic being on Easter, whichwe call Resurrection Day, and
the angel told him that he wasfighting his destiny.
Let me explain.
An epiphany is described as amanifestation of Christ to
(01:55):
Gentiles.
Well, Xavier was a Gentile.
And like so many of us in thisworld, most of us are Gentiles.
And we need to know what it isto be warriors for God in this
world.
Now, if you're not an Israeli,then you are a Gentile for whom
Christ was crucified,resurrected for you, shed his
(02:18):
blood on the cross.
Exactly.
at Calvary.
So Xavier experienced thestartup of his destiny to go and
be one with Christ.
So let's look at a little bitabout the startup of what we
call Memorial Day.
It was in 1865, after the end ofthe United States Civil War, we
(02:42):
should remember the forgottenhistory of how the Memorial Day
holiday started.
Yes, There was a 1865 eventcelebration of freed black
soldiers of the Civil War.
And this happened in, I believeit was Charleston, South
(03:02):
Carolina.
What they did was take theburied bodies of black soldiers
who fought in the Civil War andhad a parade, if you would,
because they wanted to reburythose gentlemen.
because they had experienceddeath for freedom and are not to
(03:23):
be forgotten.
Even today, in our manyorganizations today celebrate
Forget Me Not.
And in 1868, three years later,all American military units
began to celebrate what is nowknown as the national holiday
called Memorial Day.
However, each one of those menand women all had their last
(03:47):
supper at some point in timeduring their lifetime.
But it makes me remember whatJesus said at his last supper
before he was crucified.
He told his disciples toremember him.
So, He was a warrior himself, aspiritual warrior, showing us
how to live and how to die.
(04:08):
But don't forget Jesus and don'tforget our military men who
themselves died for freedom.
Jesus died for freedom so thatwe could have eternal life and
be free from sin and be freefrom the threats of hell.
Yes, there is experiences thatwe all have experiences in that
are not comfortable But we haveto learn what it means to be a
(04:30):
soldier for Christ.
Not only a soldier for ourcountry, but a soldier for Jesus
Christ.
SPEAKER_01 (04:37):
Amen.
Thank you, Apostle Charles.
That's very interesting.
You're telling me things that Ididn't know about as far as the
history of Memorial Day.
Thank you very much.
Now, I would still like for youto share with our listeners
something about spiritualwarfare that you experienced
(04:59):
When you were in Vietnam, Ibelieve that I guess the
juxtaposition of someone who'sin the military and they are
dealing with being a Christianand having spiritual warfare
going on, but yet still havingto go through actual warfare.
(05:19):
Of course, we've been marriedfor more than 50 years, so I've
heard many of the stories thatyou have shared so just any one
of those stories about somethingthat you experienced and it was
a real encounter with having togo through spiritual warfare
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
well when i first arrived in vietnam in january of
1967 one of the first thingsthat i noticed was that i was
fearful initially fearful andafraid because i didn't know
really what to expect I rememberwhen I landed in Pleiku, which
is in the Mountain ArtsMountains area in Central
(06:01):
Highlands, I believe it'scalled, they call it.
And the day before I arrivedthere, There had been an attack
on the campus and there was athreat of being overrun.
So that night, that very night,I decided to sleep with my
(06:23):
clothes on and my boots on andeverything.
I wasn't going to get undressedbecause I was afraid that
anything happened.
I wanted to be ready to run andfind some hole or ditch or
something to get into instead ofgrabbing clothes.
But anyway, it was an awfulfeeling to have fear.
However, I think my strengthbegan on the day immediately
following that we had an officerto tell us that all of us are
(06:46):
not going home, that some of uswouldn't leave the country
alive.
It bothered me to the pointwhere I thought to myself, no
way, I'm not accepting that.
Because then I had a memory totake place.
I remember praying before goingto Vietnam and telling God I
wanted to live.
I wanted to come back home withall of my extremities.
(07:07):
I told him I didn't want to comeback with anything missing in my
body.
And that's the way I stood.
I said I wanted to be married.
I wanted to have children.
I had a lot of things I placedbefore him in prayer.
And of course he did answer myprayers.
However, I had to experiencemany trials like so many other
young soldiers.
At that time I was 19 years old.
(07:28):
And when I got wounded the firsttime, which once is enough, I
remember helping to save thelives of other men who were in
combat at that day, April the2nd, 1965.
And most of the guys, many of usgot injured, hurt, But here's
the glory that I find in being aperson of spiritual warfare.
(07:50):
If you are owned by God and Godis your father, your spiritual
father, your heavenly father,you have been born again by his
spirit.
That in itself is a spiritualwarfare because you have to
surrender and give up somethings.
Now, can you imagine a soldiergiving up some things?
Yes.
Sometimes you have to give upsome things in order to be a
soldier.
I had to leave my family and goto Vietnam like the rest of the
(08:11):
guys who went there.
But I went there by faith.
Nevertheless, I did I didexperience combat numerous
times.
I don't care to mention how manytimes because I can't remember
them all.
But I experienced also thespirit of God's presence.
Anytime that we were going to bein combat, the Holy Spirit would
always reveal it to me indreams.
(08:34):
I would know the day or themoment immediately upon
awakening that we were going tobe sent into an area for search
and destroy, to seek out theenemy, flush them out, find
weapons, and so forth.
But I dreamed a dream that letme know that we were going to be
in combat.
So what had happened is I toldmy friends, I told them, I said,
(08:55):
hey, fellas, today I had adream.
And they said, no, man, we don'twant to know.
Don't tell us anything.
So in other words, God preparedme to be ready for the combat
that we had.
And yes, that's when I wasinjured myself in that
particular combat, along with awhole lot of guys.
But no, the glory of it all isthis.
no one that i was responsiblefor as a medic or corpsman no
(09:18):
one died we got injured we gotbroken bones some got what we
call the million dollar woundyou're going to be sent home but
you have your life you're stillalive and uh it's glorious i
must say that how god stayedwith me that whole time now i'll
leapfrog all the way to the veryend of my tour of duty in that
(09:39):
we were sent outside of our basecamp in order to do yes at night
a search and destroy missionbecause it was reported that the
enemy was in the area Upon goingout several kilometers away from
our barriers of that compound,suddenly we came under attack
and the enemy was behind us andwe went and stooped down to
(10:05):
avoid being shot.
And at the same time, oursoldiers who were in the
perimeter, on the perimeter ofthe base camp, they start firing
also.
So we were in a crossfireposition.
So the bullets were flying overus and while bullets were flying
over for five or ten minutesthings got quiet and then we
began to make moves again tocontinue our search and destroy
(10:25):
to find these guys who were outthere but I heard a voice speak
to me and said this is your lastpatrol now I didn't pay
attention to that because I wasintensely paying attention to
what was going on around me andwhat we could possibly run into
and then the voice said it againthis is your last patrol and I
did hear it, but I didn't, and Iwasn't paying attention.
(10:46):
And then it said it a thirdtime.
That voice said, this is yourlast patrol.
And when it heard that voice thethird time, I said to myself and
said what that voice said, whichwas the Spirit of God.
And I said it in conjunctionwith the Holy Spirit.
I said, this is my last patrol.
Little did I know that, yes, itwas my last patrol.
I had no more nighttime patrolsor daytime patrols except in
(11:08):
convoys.
Now, the beauty of it is this.
There is very little potentialfor anybody who's an experienced
warring soldier to be sent backhome before his tour of duty in
the, we call it, in the jungleor whatever, was over.
And that usually didn't happenuntil approximately maybe a week
(11:32):
or two before you'd go back tothe States.
In other words, you're fightingon the battlefield until a week
or two before it's time for youto go back to the United States.
So...
I was taken off of the duty tobe in combat and put on, uh,
convoy patrol during the daytimeapproximately two months before
(11:52):
I was supposed to be sent backto the United States and I knew
that was a miracle oh yes I hadsome other things to take place
in my life as well but I'll juststop at those two we need to
learn to listen to the voice ofGod even if it means to read his
word which is logos and hear thespirit of God which we call
rhema the rhema word of God whospeaks into our hearts our souls
(12:12):
our minds our spirit and causesus to have faith and believe in
him during times of spiritualwarfare Whether it's in your
heart or your mind, your soul,whether it's in fear or darkness
or unexpected things that canhappen and do happen, we can
always trust in God because hedid it for my nephew.
He did it for some otherfriends.
He did it for so many guys in myunit.
(12:33):
They didn't get killed, but theydid get wounded and they did
have some awful experiences thatthey live with today.
And I thank God for theorganizations like the Disabled
American Veterans and Veteransof Foreign Wars.
And we also thank God for thosewho are the wounded warriors as
well, because they gave part oftheir freedom to serve this
(12:56):
country so that you can be freeand celebrate Memorial Day.
SPEAKER_01 (13:03):
Well, thank you, Apostle Charles, for sharing
those experiences with us onthis.
You're in Vietnam and speakingof the Holy Spirit and how the
Holy Spirit spoke to you and howGod covered and protected you
during that time.
And thank you again for thehistory of Memorial Day.
(13:25):
Thank you for joining us today.
And now we are going to go backto Apostle Charles and he's
going to close us out and letyou know how you may contact us.
See you next time.
SPEAKER_00 (13:37):
If you want to contact us or comment on this
podcast, please visit ourwebsite at cgmissions.com
forward slash podcast, where allepisodes are available by
category and series
SPEAKER_01 (13:53):
format.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.