They are one of many small military units like them positioned around the earth, and like most of them, they number fewer than 350 strong. Youthful, energetic, and eager, most of them were already brought by their dedicated parents to training centers at the early age of about five or six years old. The purpose already then was that they might be further exercised in the art of a very specialized form of warfare, one requiring even small children to be prepared as early as possible.
Now that these children have entered their teens, they have been transferred, again by their parents, to a more specialized base in order to continue their training. Apprenticed to more seasoned soldiers, they become more knowledgeable in the areas of expertise that they will need for the ongoing battle with a most formidable enemy—an ancient foe most sly and swift and subtle.
There have been great sacrifices made by the parents of these children in order to obtain this quality of training for their offspring. Remarkably, parents like them have continued to make this sacrifice for generations already. While many scoff at the exorbitant amount they are willing to spend for their children’s battle-readiness, these parents consider their children to be of noble heritage, and their training as both a mandate from their King and crucial for their survival. Hence, the cost does not deter them from sending every one of their children who is capable of undergoing the rigorous exercise that this education requires, regardless of their own personal discomfort or inconvenience.
This particular regiment of young warriors, both male and female, calls themselves “The Company of the White Horse”. To all appearances, although they show their youthful vigor and energy well,
they are just average youth, much like those found among their fellow citizens upon earth: tall, medium, short in build; dark-haired, blonde, or red-haired. Some are athletic, while others are not so; some are academically inclined, while others struggle with books and learning. What distinguishes them from their peers, however, is not their physical stature or beauty or intellect or strength, but their awareness of their surroundings, of their enemy, and of their purpose in life.
They have obtained this very specialized knowledge not from a training manual, but from a personal letter directed to them by the King himself. It was given long ago, first in oral tradition, and then later written down and preserved for many, many generations by the King’s own command. So precious is it, and so unlike any other literary document on earth, that it is known simply as The Word.
The parents have seen to it that this volume has been present in the lives of their children since they were extremely small, and its priceless treasures measured out to them in small tidbits before they even had very many words of their own. Now as these children have come to years of discretion, they have begun more and more to grasp the truth about this marvelous gift given to their fathers long ago by the King himself: It is a sword meant for protection, for perseverance, for power It is the Sword of the Word of the King!
Besides the awful face of the King himself, that Sword of the Word is the only weapon that has proved effective in the warfare against the Enemy. If I speak as though that war for which they are daily in training has already begun, it is because this war has been no Thirty Years’ War or even a Hundred Years’ War, as violent and long-lasting as they were. It is not even a World War that this regiment faces together. The war that threatens them is cosmic in its scope—a war across time and space and the universe. Even more horribly, it is a war not against flesh and blood warriors like their human selves, creatures against whom they could possibly defend themselves with the right training in physical strength and advanced weaponry. No, it is a cosmic war involving powers and principalities, potentates, and the very Prince of the Powers of Darkness himself…
Sometimes they seem to understand this, these brave young soldiers in the Company of the White Horse. Their leaders are humbled by the very real presence of the King’s power evident in their young lives. They have seen evil about them in the depravity and destruction evident in their world, as men and women scorn their King and make their own rules. They understand, some of them, because the Evil One already lurks dangerously close to some of them. Often he has infiltrated their homes and caused danger and discontentment and despair through the rebellion of parents or siblings against the High King of Heaven. He has sent his helpers even into the sanctuaries to which they run on the first day of every week to refresh and restore their spirits, and caused doubt at the hands of his minions from the House of Hypocrisy, who pretend to worship in spirit with them, but in truth hate their King. And he even, even has access to their training centers, where he causes words of spite and cruelty and arrogance to replace THE WORD and flow freely from the mouths of those who were assumed to be their comrades in the fight against the Evil One. I tell you with grief that at times, this so-called friendly fire from fellow soldiers has wreaked more havoc and brought more casualties than a terrorist’s tote on a travel bus. How the Dark One must delight in that destruction!
Foolish soldiers there have been who fancy their words to hold more potency than the Word of the King, and thus try out their word-weaponry against their own comrades-at-arms, the True and Faithful Ones, whom they perceive to be weaker than they. Deceived, they have forgotten the warning that the real battle is not to the strong, nor is this race to the swift. Bringing the warning of The Word is the only way to remind them who their true Enemy is, and to turn them toward the Prince of the Powers of the Air with the Sword of The Word, which is all-powerful…
Despite the onslaughts of the enemy—his deceptions, his devastations, his attempts at disorder and chaos all around them-—they have The Word, and its light draws them to their King and to his Truthfulness and Trustworthiness, their bulwarks in the midst of danger.
Step into their camp, and behold these well-trained warriors of the beloved Company of the White Horse and their preparations for the great and final Battle of the Ages that draws ever nearer. Day by day they are learning together how to secure the belt of Truth around them, to cover their vulnerable hearts with the breastplate of Righteousness given them by the Crown Prince himself. Daily they practice the fastening of their firm sandals to their tender feet and stand firmly on the Gospel of Peace as their sure hope. Daily each defender grips the mighty shield of Faith given as a dart-deterrent, dons the Helmet of Salvation, and holds out a gauntleted hand to receive the Sword of the Word, that most vital weapon. They are one body, with one hope and one glory that they await.
Watch, as along with their leaders, they listen, listen carefully for the pounding of the White Horse’s hooves drawing near and nearer, for on it rides their victorious Lord, the Prince of Heaven and Earth, the One on whose robes and powerful thighs is written “ King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16), the one called “Faithful and True”. They await the seventh angelic voice from heaven trumpeting the victory that has already been assured through His triumph: “The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever”( Revelation 11: 15).
Meanwhile, to the wicked, the mighty Word gives only woes and warnings, but to the wise warrior, the Word whispers , “Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom “ (Luke 12:32).
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is” then, “for brethren to dwell in unity” (Ps. 133:1).