Snipers in the Kingdom

Tags

Battle, Intercession, Intercessors, Kingdom, Sniper, Warfare

Ephesians 6:12 “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.”

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

One of the main differences I am noticing between the kingdom of God and religion or even the church age is the simplicity in which God does things. In the church age everything is laborious, time consuming, and honestly can feel very heavy. It is as though in the church age there is a lot of being busy doing nothing. But, in the kingdom on the other hand, which is actually a place, not just a nice phrase to quote, things are highly effective, cost effective and empowering. There is a sense of moving forward, of taking ground, of actually, genuinely advancing with the Lord Himself. Jesus spoke the people in His day and invited them to a kingdom lifestyle which included a yoke (work)but it was easy and a burden but it was light.

An area that is found both in the kingdom and the church age is that of intercession. Intercessors and intercession are an integral part of the kingdom life, but the way in which intercession is viewed in the kingdom is more like a sniper, rather than a laborious, time consuming activity that gets no recognition, but does what many feel like is most of the work. When the Lord spoke to me that intercessors are snipers in the kingdom, I was eager to discover who a sniper is and what they actually do. This is what I learned.

A sniper is a qualified specialist who operates alone, in a pair or with a sniper team for the sake of maintaining close visual contact with the enemy; engaging in targets from concealed positions; and engaging in distances exceeding the detection and capabilities of enemy personnel. This alone made me shout, INTERCESSORS ARE SNIPERS IN THE KINGDOM, for this is what they do and I am so honored to know some of them. But as I kept studying, I learned even more than just solidified what the Lord spoke to me.

A sniper’s job description is to deliver discriminatory, highly accurate rifle fire against enemy targets, they are marksmen (a person who is skilled in shooting at a mark). Snipers are force multipliers (an attribute which makes a given force more effective than that same force would be without it). This factor dramatically increases the effectiveness of a group. When I read this I shouted, snipers in the kingdom, multiply the body of Christ’s effectiveness because of their precision in with which they hit the enemy target with their prayers. Snipers ensure battlefield survival for the rest of the Lord’s army.

Qualities that a sniper must have include being patient, disciplined and are able to work alone. Snipers are sharp shooters. If this was not enough, the final discovery I made about snipers is the economic effectiveness they bring to the team. Snipers use 1.3 rounds of bullets (prayer time) while other military officers (members of the body of Christ) use 50,000 bullets (prayer time). Do you see how the sniper is able to do more with less? Moving from church or religion to kingdom, increases your effectiveness in prayer from being a soldier to a sniper.

Finally, soldiers hit man-sized targets 10% of the time at a 300 meter distance, while a sniper hits the same target 90% of the time at a 600 meter difference. Snipers in the kingdom are intercessors and they are extremely accurate, they know who their enemy is, they are patient enough to wait in hiding until they can get a good shot at him and take him out immediately. They save the kingdom time and money because of their skills and they force multiply the advancing of the kingdom, so the bride is accelerated in her gathering of others to meet their King. Snipers in the kingdom don’t spend long hours in prayer, for they are trained in hearing the voice of God, recognize the enemy and position themselves to take him out with minimal prayers. We will not win this battle without the snipers in the kingdom.