In the last article, I posted called, “God’s New Grid of Watchmen of Intercession” I mention that the Lord is mobilizing Watchmen to stand their watch and gather prophetic intelligence to intercede accordingly. Together, they form a network where the intelligence gathered is communicated to a command center. From there, effective strategies and counter measures can be implemented with Special Forces deployed to do great exploits in the region. In this article, I want to mention about one of the Special Forces that God is mobilizing – SWAT Teams.
The mantle they wear is the cloak of humility and their source of courage stems from the Father’s love.
It is an elite group with developed spiritual gifts and talents that work together as a team to do exploit as they are led by the Holy Spirit. Working outside the boundaries of the traditional church, they are trained to execute high-risk operations under cover as secretive operatives. Often positioned between the forces of hell and the Kingdom of God, they hold back the tide of evil as they make a stand for righteousness.
Their duties include performing hostage rescue operations to open prison doors and set the captives free. At the risk of their own lives, they are often called to subdue suspects and engage in warfare with heavily-armed bandits. They utilize special equipment including the full armor of God and spiritual tools such as the Word of knowledge to see at night with advanced vision optics. They are equipped with the gift of discerning of spirits with motion detectors for covertly determining the position of angels, hostages or where the enemy is hiding within an enclosed structure.
With a high degree of effectiveness, they quickly mobilize to go into any home, area, building or office, and do a clean sweep, clearing the area of enemy mines and nasty critters to usher in the glory of God.
Their mission is to not only to take territory, but to possess it knowing that a true victory is not won until it is occupied by the Church. “Together as one” in the unity of the Spirit they march toward the same objective to accomplish their mission.
Their sword is the Word of God and with great precision; they wield the Sword of Truth in spiritual warfare to execute the judgments written (Ps. 149:5-9). Their armor is the light of God (Ro. 13:12) and their lance is that of anointed intercession. Their greatest weapons are God’s truth, the Father’s heart and His love.
Their Purpose is to wait upon the Lord to receive divine counsel to do great exploits. They find creative ways to minister the full gospel of Jesus Christ that reveals the Father’s heart through acts of love. The Spirit of the Lord is upon them to preach the gospel to the poor, heal the broken hearted, open prison doors and set at liberty those that are in captivity. (Luke 4:18).
Like the CIA they gather classified intelligence to promote home land security with counter measures to combat spiritual terrorism.
Like the Delta Force they remain nameless and faceless in order to become more effective as undercover operatives. Blending into the background as ordinary people they often perform exploits in dangerous territory to set the captives free.
Like the Navy Seals, they are familiar with a vast arsenal of divine weapons rallying to the sound of battle. Wearing the cloak of humility they are unobserved by the enemy.
Like King David, they are warriors of God and lovers of God. They are passionate worshipers, unwavering in their faith to pursue God and His purposes.
These are few, the brave, the humble. The elite force of God known as the Lord’s SWAT Team that have answered the call, ….For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
Forming A Watch
During our “Crossing Jordan” conference we hosted on 8-08-2008, it was pointed out by Tom Hardiman from MorningStar Ministries that most of the people in attendance were warriors of intercession. It occurred to me this is the type of people that have been attracted to our ministry since its formation. This insight launched me on a course to equip Watchmen for the work of ministry. Ever since then, we have been “on a roll” so to speak. From these teachings I made available a popular CD album that you can purchase at our webstore. Those that have heard these timely messages report that they have been greatly blessed, not only by the information they receive, but the anointing that are on the messages that has an impartation. People tell me that the presence of God often fills their car or room as they listen to them.
I believe that before we can cross our Jordan, we must muster and equip an army that is marching in the unity of the Spirit. I believe that it will be this army that consists of radical worshipping warriors and watchmen of Intercession that will advance before the body of Christ to take the Promise Land.
Early this year we established a “Watch” to wait upon the Lord at a certain hour in the privacy of our home. Once a week our watchmen come together to share what we have received from the Father’s heart. Anyone can tell you what is taking place in the demonic realm, but few really know the heart of the Father, which is what I am after. We also conduct a yearly New England Round Table where leaders from the region come to share their prophetic insights. All of this has been extremely beneficial.
From the insights of our watchmen, a clear and consistent pattern has emerged that is providing a strategic map that leads to our destination with divine wisdom. This not only helps us to stay on target, but to hit our target with much greater precision. Another result from the insights from the Father’s heart is that we not only know the seasons that we are in, but how to walk in sync with God more perfectly. The work that the Lord wants to accomplish in our personal lives and through the ministry of PDM is becoming more fruitful as we carry our His will in the power of the Holy Spirit.
A significant major advance took place this year when we identified a principality in the region that was crippling our ministry and its effectiveness, which is the Leviathan spirit. As we dealt with this within a short period time we experienced a new freedom in our personal lives as well as our ministries effectiveness in the region. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. When these are known and the Lord reveals to His people how to deal with them, real progress can be made for the Kingdom of God and His people.
Destiny SWAT Teams
The Lord also gave to our Watchmen specific assignments to carry out in our community that has impacted lives for Christ. These assignments include acts of love that reveals the Father’s heart, house cleansing where we rid a home of nasty critters, provide prophetic insight to those in business, mentor individuals that have an influence in the area and rescuing hostages with acts of love that has transformed lives. As a result of this, we have seen the fruit of our ministry increase exponentially.
It recently occurred to me from the fruit of our exploits that we have become a special force like the elite SWAT teams. For our ministry, this stands for Strategic Warfare and Tactics team, for which I developed a shield for our own SWAT team logos.
Equipping and Training
As well as through our School of Ministry, conferences and seminars, it is my goal to develop our website as a media resource to provide training for those called aswatchmen of intercession, as well as training in the prophetic ministry. We can accomplish this through video, teaching articles and a blog devoted specifically for those in the region that oversee a ministry of intercession. We will also devote a page to help network key leaders who wish to share prophetic intelligence with other leaders in the region, which in essence is a prophetic Round Table.
I have heard it stated that there are many soldiers, but few warriors. Warriors run to the sound of battle vowing never to retreat from the enemies of the Cross. These are the true knights of Christ. It is time to mobilize as knights of Christ under the banner of our Father’s love.
But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits (Dan 11:32.)
In His heart,
Roy Roden