Being and Becoming a Warrior EPIC Nation
Who knew when we began in 2011 that The Warrior Commission would be on a journey toward becoming a Warrior EPIC Nation? – A group which will become many tribes who join together to see God’s Warriors thrive. We are just on the threshold of what God is opening before us- a landscape you’re helping us pioneer and explore. We expect to find just what’s possible in the limitless possibilities of God!
Along the way, we realized TWC is not a “ministry.” It’s a living, breathing organism in the body of Christ. This means we grow, develop, mature and learn how to live out our Kingdom values, both as individual Warriors and as a Tribe. Living from values, rather than rules, means we have greater flexibility to embrace the many diverse and creative wirings God designed in each of our Warriors. It means we make space for each Warrior’s creative process and find ways to foster a safe environment for us to train, try out new ideas, tweak, refine, distill and activate – so we develop the lifestyle of a Kingdom Warrior.
Values Compel Us
Most of us have lived in rule driven cultures in our Church experiences. We spent a lot of energy trying to be “good enough” by following all the rules and checking all the boxes. Unfortunately, that type of environment tends to modify behavior, but does not really speak to the heart. From a historical Church perspective, this framework was necessary. We honor that. But, we feel we are at a time when God is transforming the Church to bring stronger focus on value, voice and relationship.
With every time of transformation, there is a shaking. That time of shaking causes us to consider the status quo and ask, “Does God have something different at hand?” Because of our passion to pursue Him, we asked for the honor to be at the forefront of that transformation. His “Yes and amen” means we have the privilege of navigating this time with Him.
We aren’t here in this new ground because we are “better.” We are here because we said, “yes” to God’s request to help the Bride of Christ rise and transition into the transformation He brings. We don’t know all that will happen and we don’t even know much of what this new ground looks like. All we know is He has opened it up. We are exploring it with the passion to draw a map and help others transition into it as quickly as possible.
Relationship Matters
When we accepted God’s invitation to step into this new move, we realized how much relationship matters to us. We restructured TWC to include more opportunities to develop our Warrior Heart – the code of honor and values we live daily.
We developed (and continue to establish) new ways for our Warriors to practice communication skills…writing, teaching, training, speaking, language, upgrades, etc. to better express how God is moving in our lives. These skills empower our voice.
We also decided every Warrior is important to us! We believe God brought each Warrior here. We take the approach that each Warrior will always be part of our Tribe, whether active or “on mission” beyond TWC. That means we have a long term perspective and continue to find new ways for our more seasoned Warriors to explore, connect and thrive.
We do not have a one and done culture. Our decision to commit to the process means we had to redesign TWC and pour into what is needed to be close family with healthy dynamics. The Warrior is the goal…seeing, supporting and loving that person, not the number of people we can claim to have in our midst. We have impacted 1000s and will influence many more, but that is overflow and a blessing coming through God’s open doors, not how we find value.
We have found the fun of a creative God and a culture that encourages us all to know each other by heart and identity. We chose a long time ago to define a Warrior’s value by the fact that God created that person and their identity, not on anything that person has or has not done. We throw performance out the window and embrace the process of journey and story through the ongoing adventure God uncovers! Our questions reflect our value for others and the Lord and our evidences of transformation celebrate pieces of each person’s story along the way.
This passion for others created a shift in our journey as The Warrior Commission. God asked us to open space for Warriors to safely explore. We found new language that let us lay aside “baggage” that came with other “church” words. Those new words also helped us better capture the kingdom concepts we continue to explore and implement. These words shape our culture of honor, encouragement, relationship, leadership, maturing and passion for God and others.
Being compelled by Kingdom based, biblical values gives us the ability to keep our compass needle pointed on our True North (God) rather than trying to fit in a specific box of our own making. With our True North, we pioneer new ground, influence through our heart felt words to activate and champion others to become the Warriors God created us all to be.
It’s been an incredible journey…and we still have a lot to look forward to!
Warrior Code of Honor
We are compelled by the foundational values of our Tribe, rather than being “rules” minded. This means we are developing an internal Warrior code of honor based on the Bible and relationship with God and each other. We captured some of these biblical principles in our Decisions That Define Us, Values and Principles, and Kingdom Assignments.
Our main scripture is to do as Jesus said in Luke 10:27, love God with everything and love others as you love yourself. The key in this verse is that through loving God completely, we receive His love, see ourselves through His eyes and learn to love ourselves from His heart. As we do, we can pour out on others with a greater love and impact the world around us. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit continually expands our capacity to be Warrior Ambassadors of God’s love.
Good Beginnings
The Warrior Commission began with a question: What would happen if Warriors trained on the ground of intercession?
The journey of The Warrior Commission (TWC) got its start as a Prayer Partner Network for Graham Cooke. In 2011 it shifted to be called The Warrior Class led by Allison Bown, with our role of bringing prayer covering for Graham’s extensive travel and numerous public events. As Graham’s ministry shifted and he no longer traveled (around 2017), Allison transitioned from TWC to work more closely with Graham and TWC was gifted to Christine Casten and the Warriors of TWC.
At that point we had the compass God had given us and the blessing from Graham to go into this world and discover our Tribe’s identity in Christ. From 2017 to 2020, we entered into a journey deep into God’s heart. We asked Him questions to discover our why and identity. In that process, God began to transform us so we could enter into our fullness and take our place in the body of Christ.
We saw our intercession for one become Intel for many. The intercession has resulted in intel for countries, people and leaders across all mountains of influence who have received our Intercession Blueprints. We took our original training focus of Warrior on the ground of intercession to develop Warrior mindsets and ways as we brought in relational perspectives, brain science, and connection to others. In this process, we discovered our why and the word Commission was introduced by the Lord.
Prophetically Inspired
The Intel and Intercession is still intertwined in all we are. We tap into the prophecies God’s given us and, more importantly, steward them in God’s timing.
Living prophetically inspired lives with God as our First Love is not always easy. We navigate the unknown territories of God’s heart, stepping into the undiscovered ground of what this new era, or new move of God contains. We haven’t been there before and there are no models to follow. So we are learning how to bring heaven to earth in this space. That means our process can be messy at times. We don’t know what we don’t know. But, with purity of heart, passion to pursue the Lord and grace for our process we trust Him to help us navigate those challenges.
Along with the prophetic exploration, we made sure to stay grounded in the Bible and use it as our testing ground for all we put in place. We pull the dots together and collect the wisdom each Warrior shares. We connect those dots together to discover what is next on God’s heart. We don’t have a 10 year plan for what TWC will look like or find our value in how many Warriors we have. We are simply following the cloud by day and the fire by night. God is intentional: we are continuing to stay true to our foundations, prophetic direction and current understanding of our identity as a Warrior EPIC Nation.
Our Name
We became The Warrior Commission in 2020. We felt God wanted to bless us with a new name that better captured who we are, who we are becoming and the call we have to help the sons and daughters of God rise into their fullness – Instead of sons and daughters, we use the word Warrior.
Our kingdom voices carry the resonance of heaven, the treasures God has given each person and the power of our testimonies! Because we are covered by the blood of the Lamb, we are able to breakthrough. We help each other as we share the wisdom God has given us – we tap into each other’s separate experiences through our calls and training. Simply put, God is glorified. We help those beyond us because we are confident in our God and confident in who we are in Him.
So here we are. We know our identity as a Tribe. We understand our role to become a Warrior EPIC Nation. We continue to expand TWC to be much more than a place to train; it’s a group of Warriors helping each other and others beyond to become all God has on His heart for His bride to become.
For many of our Warriors, The Warrior Commission is an active life-giving connection that lasts for a lifetime. As Warriors after God’s heart, TWC is a place to be encouraged, stay sharp and have running mates for the rest of our lives, even as we are acting in other areas of influence. We continue training in many different ways — it may be through a training module or it may be something we have not even seen yet – but through it all, we continue to take ground for King and Kingdom.
