Duncan Brannon- On The Front Lines Part#2

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Won't you say you love me too? Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, The Russian Nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Back for part two. Man, if you listen to part one, I know you were intrigued by the things that this man of God talked about, Duncan Brannon. Duncan, welcome back to It's Time to Man Up, part two. Thanks, Nikita. It's great to be back, man.

Great to have you back. You know, we kind of left our listeners hanging. You know, we did that back in the wrestling days.

You know, some of the fans, when I go out and do autograph signings, what's kind of funny is they'll go, man, I used to hate it when I'd be watching the shows on Saturday. And you're like, you'd be engaged in this match or something. They'd go, oh, we're out of time. We're out of time. And we never saw the finish.

We never saw what happened. You know, I go, yeah, well, that was pretty intentional to keep you coming back week in and week out, right? I remember that, brother.

The Dallas Sportatorium, my friend, I remember. Come on. The Von Erich family, right? Yeah. Just watching that and going, no, no, no.

They just put the claw on him. What's going on? Hey, let me ask you about that for a moment. So you did grow up watching some of that. Did you ever catch, obviously the Von Erich family was big out in Texas where you were born and raised and the Sportatorium was legendary out there for world-class championship wrestling. And of course, Kerry and David and all the Von Erich, Fritz Von Erich and more some of the other guys you maybe remember. And did you ever see a Nikita Kolov match? You better believe, you better believe we saw a Nikita Kolov match. We remember the Russian nightmare.

Come on. Your name is familiar in our mouths as a household word, my brother. We remember names like Bruiser Brody and Andre the Giant and Kamala. I mean, I can go down the list of old school people, you know, the Iceman King Parsons, you know, all of these guys. Just we grew up with all of them.

And then of course we followed it all the way into the, the WWF when they became the big payday and on down the line. So yeah, but Lex Luger, Lex Luger was one of my favorites. I know that you and he are great pals. And of course my little brother, he loves, he loves staying.

He loved the stinger. And so all of those people that, that, you know, so well, that our fellow believers now also, yeah, we, we grew up watching them. You watched it all. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this name, the tower of power to three to be power.

If you will, the son of a plumber from Austin, Texas, baby year, the road who became the super powers with Nikita Korov year, if you will. Oh my gosh. Yes. The American dream.

The American dream. All right. Hey, let me, I got to ask, I got to ask you, I mean, you mentioned a lot of legendary names. Is there any, and there may not be, but is there any match that just kind of, it can be anybody that jumps out at you that you remember anybody?

Wow. I, you know, I think that the thing that struck us the most, um, was watching the Von Eric's because we did, we got to see them live. And of course they were from, you know, they're from there for, they were from here.

They grew up right here in Addison. Um, and just that, that amazing legacy. So getting to watch, um, we're not, we got to see all three of them, um, wrestling at one time. We, you know, we were, and we remember the days of David too, um, they're the oldest, but, uh, getting to see Kevin and Carrie and David all in the ring together at the same time, even at that time, you know, wrestling had not, I don't think fully exploded into the phenomenon that it would become later in the nineties and so forth. But, but you can sense, first of all, just that, just the, the, the leadership of, of their father Fritz, you could see the, the dedication to athleticism, um, and appreciate so much of, of, of how deeply devoted they were to the sport and, and just getting to watch them.

Um, and, uh, I remember being a matches of course, with Andre, the giant, you know, and watching that, that giant of a man, you know, and one of them, you know, throw the claw on this man and, and putting this, you know, you know, this, this seven foot, you know, however tall he was a seven foot five, I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. Watching him go down to the mat, you know, You're listening to the truth network and truth network.com. Nikita Kollof here. And I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement? Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook go look up my new fan page, Nikita Kollof fans and like it and follow today.

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What are you waiting for? Go to mstarevents.com You're listening to the truth network and truth network.com. And seeing the wrestlers run from the back to try to get it off and they can't get it off because it's locked on now. Wow.

That's crazy. I remember, I remember watching a match at the sportatorium years ago and, and just, we were, we were all into it, but there was, there was an entire family behind us and man, they were all in. And I, to this day, if I start impersonating the woman that was sitting behind us, she's like, referee, referee, he's cheating, he's cheating.

And just this woman, she was so upset. Because the referee wasn't catching the guy cheating, right? Yeah. They're, they're hitting each other with chairs and so forth. And of course the referee doesn't see it, you know, and, and, oh, they were so upset and I, I became more enamored. I think at that time of listening to them, I forgot what was going on. Right.

Well, and I will say for the record, many of the fans have said to me over the years, some of the more entertaining matches were out in the audience that were actually in the ring. But, well, I appreciate you sharing a little bit of that. I want to, we got a lot to cover on this show and, and you know, you, you mentioned something in the last show, you said something that I didn't know I was doing. And with you, with an acting background, you used the terminology method acting. And, and someone said to me one time, you know, when they found out, you know, I really wasn't from Russia, shocker, shocker, spoiler alert, Nikita Kolov's not really, the Russian nightmare's not really from Russia. But, and I didn't realize Duncan that, that apparently that's what I was doing way back then. No, I didn't take acting classes like you. I didn't go, you know, I wasn't on stage or in theater, you know, I just, I just did it.

And, and later on found out that that's what I was doing. But let me ask you this in regards to your acting, is there a, a favorite play, maybe a favorite stage play that you did? Ooh, wow. Now that I, I think I would go back to Shakespeare because, um, because Hamlet, Hamlet is really seen, if you go back to Hamlet, Hamlet is really seen, first of all, is really kind of the juiciest part out there that any, any male actor could ever get. It really is number one, because the show is, you know, over three hours. And so there is a, just a ton of, of dialogue to memorize and so forth. But it's an extremely juicy part because he's dealing with, you know, the, the death of his father, this, this frout of intrigue, you know, his father has mysteriously died. His mother has, has quickly married, uh, this, this figure, this leader who is, who's probably behind the plot, uh, and so forth. And Hamlet is investigating it. And then he's, then he's visited by the ghost of his dad who reveals, yes, it was, I was murdered.

And now you son, you've got to, you've got to dive into this and so forth. And that, that, that, that role is, is defining for many, many actors. Kevin Kline, um, uh, played it.

Of course, Sir Laurence Olivier, um, played the, played the original, the black and white that many of us know. And so coming into that role, preparing for it, you know, I was, I was so serious. I worked so many months, uh, preparing for that. And there's, and of course there's, there's sword, sword fighting in the show.

Uh, there's all kinds of stage combat and so forth. And so, yeah, it was, that was such a defining role. I think for me on many levels that I knew that, you know, if I wasn't going to remain an actor, that, that those skills and those other things that I had learned along the way that they would stick with me. And of course, after memorizing and, and working that muscle memory so much, when I became a, a Christ follower, that ability to memorize scripture, I mean, it just, it translated right into my, my walkthrough.

That experience. Well, let's, that's a great transition point for me right there. So, cause I want to lead to, you know, how you and I met and, and, and talk a little bit about your transition from, from the stage and acting, into, into really essentially a full-time ministry.

But I believe, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. My first introduction to Duncan Brannan was at an event out in, in, on a ranch in South Texas, but through a ministry called Fellowship of the Sword. And, and I don't know if I've ever said this to you, maybe I have, or maybe I haven't, but I want the world to know, the impact you had on my life, Duncan.

And, and, cause I was at this event called Quest. And for the first time in my life, I, my eyes were open to what it looks like to, to live a life of, of masculinity and manhood, the way God defines it, the way the Bible defines it, as a teaching on manhood, on masculinity that, that was taught there at that event, this Quest event. And, and it blew me away. And, and you were the one doing the teaching and, and now it was, it was through video, but, but you were doing the teaching. And, and in fact, it so impacted me, here's what I want you to hear, what I want our audience to understand.

It so impacted me and rocked my world that I went back home from, from that, that, that, Quest and asked my pastor, if I could share for five minutes on the platform, you know, and at that time we, we had about a thousand member church and he said, absolutely. And Duncan, I said this, I said, for 46 years of my life, I was a male. And for the first time in my life, at the age of 47, cause I actually boarded the bus at, on my birthday, I said, for the first time in my life, I, I stepped into manhood, the way God defines it, because of your teaching on, on manhood. And I say that to say, the first 46 years of my life, even, even 13 years walking with Christ, my view of manhood was defined by the world for real. I mean, I grew up without a dad, many, you know, my story, they've listened to the show and the podcast, the story of, of reconciliation and redemption with my father, but, but I grew up without a dad. And so my view of manhood came from conversations in school, came from magazines, you know, like, like Playboy, penthouse. I mean, I just being real and raw here on the show, but that defined my manhood.

And that's what I knew of man. But when you gave that teaching on manhood, it rocked my world. And I told that, that I told the congregation that morning, this is the first time I've just stepped into, to me. And, and, and because of your teaching, I've been pursuing that now. And now teach that myself. I taught many of the things I learned from you and now teach that. And of course, you know, I've got these Lex, you mentioned Lex Luger, Lex and I have these camps called man camp.

Then we do one in the spring, one of the fall. We bring men in for a number of days and just teach them about, about masculinity and about manhood, what it looks like to be a godly husband and a godly father and, and, and to walk that out. And, but you were instrumental, instrumental in, in that transition for me. So, so I just want you to hear that. I want our audience to know just how your teaching impacted my own life and how now it's impacting many other men's lives as I embraced what you taught and now share that with countless men, whether it's through our conferences we call the conference, the man up conference, you know, here we're on the man up show, it's the man up conference. And so let me ask you, let me ask you that, that transition, take a minute or two and just talk to our audience about how you transitioned from the stage, really to becoming a full-time ministry. And then I want to, I want to get to your book before we run out of time.

Sure, sure. So a couple of things really kind of happened here to, to make that pivotal, you know, that, that life pivotal possible. So I landed, and I know you wanted to mention this earlier, I landed major roles in voiceover. I had become the voice of Chuck E. Cheese. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Chuck E. Cheese. All right, hold on. Pause. So here's what blew me away. So when I listened to that teaching on manhood and I was like, oh my gosh, and this guy's like the most profound Bible scholar that I had met at the time, right? And then, and then afterwards they go, oh, by the way, you know, he, he did some acting, he did some voiceovers and, oh, oh, by the way, has anyone here ever watched, anyone familiar with a purple dinosaur? And I'm like, oh my gosh, my daughter, Kendra was the biggest Barney fan. Like I'm talking Barney bedsheets, Barney videos. She'll kill me for saying I, she was in love with Barney. And then come to find out this man of God, Duncan Brannon was the voice of Barney.

After I watched this manhood teaching, I'm like, how does that even connect together? So anyway, there you go. The foolishness of God, brother.

There's the foolishness of God. Barney and Chuck E. Cheese. So who, keep going to who else?

Yeah. So, uh, it would have, I landed the three largest voiceover gigs that I ever had Barney, Chuck E. Cheese, and then voices with, uh, Funimation's Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z GT, you know, characters like Bobbety, you know, this evil wizard. I will use my power and control your mind.

You know, these, these crazy characters. Um, yeah, I landed all three of those without any agents, without, uh, without even a professional demo because, because God opened the door. I, I yielded it all. He had told me to lay down the acting thing and so forth. And when, when he called me back in it's because he threw open the door and you're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here.

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Be sure to check them out today at wsmc1.com because you are number one. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ ministries for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs adoration and declaration for a gift of $50. Nikita will include his book wrestling with success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, a tale of the ring and redemption.

Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. Things like that. I was doing a franchise convention in Phoenix, Arizona, doing a walk around character for Chuck E. Cheese at the time because I could dance and so forth with some friends and they said hey they're auditioning for that role you should you should put something together and I was like well I don't have an agent I don't have a demo and but they had a sound system and so I put together a tape and put it out there and about a month later found out that I had landed the part of Chuck E. Cheese in 1993. That's so awesome. Yeah I met Bob West who was the original voice of Barney the dinosaur at the time and doing Chuck E. Cheese because he did other voices and so we became friends and in 1997 when Barney was exploding they needed to bring somebody else in and so I auditioned so you could just see this crazy domino effect of the sovereign god and the plan that he had for my life.

Wow. Yeah and then now yeah and then he goes off and starts teaching on manhood. Well well and here's what's going through my mind and then we're gonna I want to I want to talk about your book and so here's what's going through my mind right now even as you're talking and people ask me this all the time can you still do the voice and I'm like yeah but oh my goodness of course I'm just so happy to be on the show with my good friend Nikita I'm really glad you're not a Russian nightmare anymore though that was kind of scary. I love you you love me we're a happy family with a great big hug and a kiss from you won't you say you love me too. Oh my gosh have I heard that once I heard that a million times thank you Kendra I love you darling thank you for making me sit down and watch that video a million times so all right Duncan on that note on that note that's amazing so let's let's talk about your book I mean tell our listeners I mean what's it about and what prompted you to write it. So the book is called the soldier code ancient warrior wisdom for modern day Christian soldiers and it really is the accumulation of first of all 30 years in ministry I've pastored families I've pastored men I've led retreats for men and women alike pastored kids I've pastored youth college and career so you name it I've really run the gamut that way and so naturally you you acquire if you're paying attention I think if you acquire a little bit of wisdom along the way in that journey but in about 1999 the Lord started another sovereign work in my life and I was going into a Barnes and Noble bookstore passing the history section and I really felt the Holy Spirit just prompting me to stop and walk over and I walked over picked up a copy of Sun Tzu's art of war and felt prompted to buy it and took it home began to read it and as I began to read it I began began to notice these amazing parallels between natural earthly warfare and the spiritual heavenly one that we wage as believers there were principles that translated from Sun Tzu an ancient Chinese military classic into the Christian life with with just seamlessness and a matter of fact that the first thing that he says in the opening of the book war is a matter of vital importance to the state the province of life or death it is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied I remember looking at that when I started reading that book and just going good grief that's like Ephesians 6 12 just said another way you know before we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers I remember this book impacting me and it started a 20-year journey delving into martial history looking at the samurai looking at Spartans looking at the medieval knights of Europe looking at the Celts the Roman legionary the gladiator Vikings and so forth just this great passion arose in me and as I began to study just like I had in in reading Sun Tzu's art of war I began to see many many lessons that translated into the Christian experience and I noticed some things that happened inside of me while I was doing that number one it didn't change what I believed because my beliefs had been rock solid in scripture but what it did is it brought a clarity it brought a sense of urgency to my warfare as a believer that I had not felt previously and in in the years following as I began to you know do all of this research and so forth teachings came out of that I had friends that were asking hey what are you learning about and so forth and then eventually it became retreats and things like that where I would teach these principles and here you know just a couple of years ago it was Israel and I were getting ready for a major transition to move she looked at me she said well what's God calling you to do this next season and I said without without a moment's hesitation said it's time to write the book and she said I agree and so this book is the product of 30 years of ministry 20 years in studying ancient warrior history and wanting to download to the Christians of this age a revolutionary a very cutting edge understanding of spiritual warfare that I think that we desperately need right in this hour of the west here yeah we're in serious times and we need I believe men of understanding of the times like the children of Issachar first chronicles 1232 says we need an understanding and we need hardcore weaponry and it's it's hard to find it's hard to find solid teaching and it's hard to find teaching that you really feel that outfits you well I remember some of the studies that I was doing just getting ready and putting the book together and the statistics of pastoral health of church health that were so alarming and that only increased that burden 53% of pastors today they believe that seminary did not adequately equip them for their job right some over over 50% are struggling with pornography on a regular basis right 54% just feel overwhelmed and the more and more I looked at this the more and more I I knew what God was telling me to do it's time to put this together and it's time to put it out there for people and I like you had noted very early on in that first broadcast it's been well received we're we're doing really really well and we're really excited and we just want to get it into more hands as many as possible really well and I know it's and I know it's gonna do I feel confident say it's gonna do well in in the excerpts that I've you know reviewed and and I look forward to reading reading the entire book and I just want to say for all the listeners out there um you know this is we we are in a war I mean the minute you enter into the kingdom of God you know you've signed up whether you like it or not you signed up and and hopefully you know I say it all the time Duncan if you're in my foxhole I don't want you cowering away I want you standing up in or standing side by side with me and fighting the good fight of faith and so and they can find this book on on Amazon where all can they find your book Duncan yeah yeah they can hop on Amazon of course it's available in ebook form on Kindle as well it's in print it's in paper and hardback and you can visit our website also the soldier code all one word the soldier code.com and you can find out more about the book you can order the book through there also and and find out what this what this whole thing is about it's one of the most enthralling studies I think anybody will ever do on the subject it's because it's a different way it's a different way of approaching the subject really kind of like Jesus did his parables Jesus in order to relate kingdom truths to us heavenly truths he started with what was familiar he started with what was here on earth with what people could touch taste and see and this book continues in that same vein we start with real history we start with real stories and we get rid of the stereotypes we look at actual events that happened in the lives of these amazing warrior cultures and then we watch just literally it's almost kind of like it does itself you watch you're listening to the truth network and truth network.com all feet agree clemens carpet is where you need to be with carpet vinyl tile and hardwood from the top brands clemens carpet does it right from beginning to install voted number one by you in the reader's choice awards doug chad benny kiwi and the team at clemens carpet look forward to seeing and serving you soon this is Nikita Koloff and I want to thank clemens carpet for supporting my new show man up saturday afternoon at 12 30 on the truth network you're listening to the truth truth network and truthnetwork.com literally those those principles walk straight over into scripture walk straight over into the christian experience uh as and we look at of course i yeah i went to seminary of course like a good boy also and studied original language so we look at hebrew and greek and we talk about those meanings and we look at context and culture in scripture so it's not just me grabbing a verse here and just going well it could be like this we dig deep right it is a it's very it's both a very deeply spiritual and also very academic work so history buffs out there all those people they're gonna love it yeah no surprise there you are man you are a man of depth knowledge and understanding when it comes to scripture and the word of god so everything you're saying i just would just emphasize and as as well and and so you you have duncan brannon you have impacted the life of of nikita coloff and and i'm forever grateful for that i know i feel confident say this book is going to do amazingly well because of god's blessing on you and your life and the impact you've made not only on mine but many others not just man just all of those that have come in contact with you i know that they've walked away a better person having met you and i'm grateful for you to have you on the show today the soldier's code i hope you will go and pick up a copy of that or download a copy of that duncan brannon uh man of god duncan brannon esquire thank you for being on the man up show thank you so much for having me today nikita i really appreciate it and thank you all for tuning in to another episode of it's time to man up god bless you this podcast is made possible by the grace of god and your faithful prayers support and generous gifts may god bless you for your continual contributions go to colab.net and donate today i nikita coloff be sure to check out the man up show now available on television broadcast and podcast go to morningstar tv.com or the truth radio network check out your local listings or better yet download the truth network app today this is the truth network