DAY16 OF 90 DAYS - ALTARS OF THE ROD OF GOD

Jeremiah 1:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see the rod of an almond tree.”

THE ANOINTED SHEPHERD’S ROD

FOR THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDS

I’ve been in full-time pastoral ministry for almost 30 years, and I hope I have some understanding of how church ministry works in our nation. My heart goes out to the faithful shepherds who watch over their flocks, just as the shepherds of Jesus’ day did. King David was a shepherd long before he became king. The Lord had already anointed him to carry the scepter, but he first carried a shepherd’s rod. The Lord Himself is the Good Shepherd, and David, the shepherd who became king and wrote Psalm 23, knew exactly what that rod was for:

Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

The Bible describes David as a brave shepherd who faced down a lion, a bear, and a principality in the form of a giant named Goliath. The Bible describes more than one rod, and I prophetically see an anointed shepherd’s rod coming forth in the days ahead. The Lord is anointing His faithful shepherds again, placing a ROD of authority in their hands to strike down foul, unclean spirits assigned against His sheep and to break the jaws of every devouring spirit.

A visitation is coming to the Lord's faithful shepherds. Just as the Lord once sent an angel to shepherds watching their flocks by night to announce the birth of the Savior, He is sending His angels again to His faithful shepherds to announce the birth of a new movement within His kingdom on earth. The Lord will grant them the power to strike down the enemy who trespasses against their stewardship of God’s sheep.

Being a lead or senior pastor is one of the hardest jobs in the world. No matter what decision you make, half the people will love you, and the other half will think you’re Pontius Pilate. I say that because senior pastors often receive no credit for their sacrifices, and many in the prophetic prayer movement don’t realize how vital the local church is for reaching those seeking to enter the kingdom and for deepening their relationship with the Lord.

I want to make a few things crystal clear about this 90-day series and watch: altars, the voice of the Lord, and a new apostolic prayer movement. A new apostolic prayer movement is not meant to replace the local church but to enhance it and help it succeed. Those in the prayer movement should diligently build relational equity with pastors in their region and always be willing to serve the regional church sacrificially.

TWELVE YEARS BEFORE THE ALTAR OF THE VOICE

One of the mandates the Lord gave me was rooted in Exodus 17, in the picture of Moses and the rod of God. That mandate and calling came from a supernatural encounter in 2007. It wasn’t the calling I expected. For the previous 12 years, I dedicated myself to hardcore urban evangelism and massive outreach. I built a youth center outreach, led a homeless ministry, launched a school assembly program that ministered to every middle and high school in Flint, Michigan, each year, and oversaw large urban missions programs for my denomination that reached entire neighborhoods with the gospel. You name it, we did it. I was the outreach guy in Flint, Michigan.

Then, suddenly, the Lord rocked my world and had me lay everything down in one moment. I built an altar, laid 12 years of ministry on it, and stepped into a paradigm I had no clue about, except for obeying the heavenly vision, which challenged a religious mindset I didn’t even realize I had.

I’m sharing this not to talk about me or what I did (nobody has time to waste on that), but to testify to the Lord's times and seasons, how they change, and what He’s saying to those made for this moment about the climax of the war for the Lord's glory to manifest in regions and throughout the earth.

THE SOUND OF SEVEN

On 11/11/2007, I took my college intern group, Master’s Commission, to a service in Ann Arbor, Michigan, led by Apostle Barbara Yoder, with Dutch Sheets as a special guest. During that service, something supernatural happened that I’ve never experienced. Dutch was speaking about 7 and Jericho, describing how they encircled it 7 times and released the sound that day, which brought the wall down.

The whole church got caught up in something that lasted about an hour, with no musicians leading or hyping it up. It began as a shout and turned into praying and singing in the Spirit. During our hour-long drive back to Flint, the LORD imparted something to the college interns I was leading: they were rumbling in the Holy Spirit, praying and prophesying over each other. The LORD spoke loudly to me while they rumbled in the back, and I drove the 15-passenger van. He directed me to go to the south gate (the southern border of our city) and release the sound of seven, the Jericho sound. He also spoke Psalm 110: “Stretch the rod, release the sound, and I’ll shift the atmosphere over your city.”

Psalm 110:2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!

For some, this probably sounds absolutely ridiculous, like charismatic foolishness. I totally understand, but this moment became one of my most significant encounters with the LORD.

THE COMMISSION AT THE SOUTH GATE

I was taken up over my city and given an aerial view of a ring of fire, angels of fire encompassing our region. That night, I received an open vision in which the LORD commissioned me with a gold sword to build an altar of worship and prayer at the south gate of the Flint region. He did not give me a building plan or a ministry strategy. He gave me a commissioning word: a spiritual sword and a rod.

The Lord spoke to me about Moses standing on the mountain with the Rod of God stretched over the valley. He said that if that rod was raised over a region, Joshua and the armies of God could prevail in the valley below. It was such a vivid encounter that I didn’t question it, but it’s always good to have confirmation. In May 2008, six months later, Apostle Chuck Pierce came to a church called ‘Ignite Flint’ in Flint, Michigan, and began to prophesy what he saw. He saw an angelic ring of fire encompassing our region.

Some of my college interns were with me during that service and just looked at me like, “You can’t make that up.” Over those six months, they had heard many times about the ring of fire, the angelic host sitting and waiting for a word from God’s mouth and from the mouth of His people that would prompt them to move accordingly.

Psalm 103:20 Bless the LORD, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.

AN ALTAR OF THE VOICE, NOT NORMAL MINISTRY

That commissioning wasn't complicated, but it was clear: the only way to win the war against spiritual darkness over a metropolitan region is through an altar of worship and prayer that can genuinely release the Voice of the LORD (the Gold Sword). My commission was different, not better, just different.

It was far different from anything I had operated in the previous 12 years. It was not primarily an altar of ministry activity or of spirit-inspired programs to help families, as good and needed as those are, but specifically an altar of the Voice of the LORD. A place for extended times of worship, sacrifice, covenant consecration, and the kind of intercession that passes through the veil, stands in the counsel of God, and returns with words that unsheathe angelic swords because they heed the voice of His Word.

THE ALTAR ON THE MOUNTAIN

That kind of altar looks exactly like the picture God gave me in the vision: Moses standing on the mountain with God’s rod raised over the valley. I’m referring to Exodus 17, where God directed Moses to stand on the mountain and stretch out God’s rod so Joshua could win in the valley below.

Exodus 17:9, 11–13 And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” … And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed… So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

God always needs a people whose purpose is not to fight in the valley but to stand on a mountain with a rod. I’m sure some in the army fighting the Amalekites had to look up and ask, “What is Moses doing up on the mountain? Why doesn’t he come down here and beat some of these Amalekites with that rod?” That calling often feels offensive to the Joshuas fighting in the valley. When are you going to start doing something and get people saved?

Do you really think you’re shifting the tide by standing on a mountain with a rod? The old prophet on the mountain with the rod secured victory in the valley. Again, not many are called to this; only a few are made for this moment.

We’ll have to overcome the voices of criticism that don’t understand how the kingdom of God is released over a region and over the earth. Those who are called to stand on the mountain are NOT spiritually elite or better than others, but are simply appointed to build an altar of the rod of God, releasing His voice so the angelic hosts of heaven can move accordingly.

TWELVE YEARS AND THEN FIFTEEN YEARS

AND A DOOR CLOSING

My first 12 years in Flint, Michigan, were among my favorite years in ministry. I've walked down almost every street in Flint and held an outreach and a crusade in almost every park. I know the city of Flint like the back of my hand, but after 12 years of giving my life to outreach, the Lord said, "Build an altar and lay everything on the altar." Boy, that was hard to do.

Then the Lord tested me by completely shifting my ministry's focus. The prophetic prayer mandate was far harder than outreach because, with outreach, at least you feel like you're doing something. Yet I have seen unfathomable breakthroughs over the 15 years of stretching the rod of the Lord's mouth. I could write a book about it, and I've been told to write it. “You can't make this stuff up.”

I haven’t traveled the globe because I’m well connected or because I went looking for it. I built, according to the divine blueprint, a womb of prophetic prayer that launched me into the nations. That's a story for another day.

I faithfully carried that prophetic prayer commission for 15 years. It cost me things I never expected; it cost me my American Christian worldview, which was contrary to the kingdom. A worldview centered on my ministry, not on the regional mandate and calling for the corporate body, or the corporate sword of the Lord. After 15 years of unfathomable, you-can’t-make-it-up moments, the Lord instinctively put it on my wife’s and my heart that we were done. That was not easy. We first thought we’d hand this ministry over to our spiritual son and daughter, but it wasn’t meant to be.

GOD TEST US AT POINTS OF TRANSITION

After 15 years, the Lord asked me to build another altar of sacrifice, just as He had after 12 years of urban outreach, but this time after 15 years of prophetic prayer and ministry at that very altar.

Genesis 22:1 says, “God tested Abraham.” It was a test of transition, a threshold from a natural son to a supernatural son. I stood at a similar threshold, facing a weighty decision: to sacrifice the promise and the future.

Revelation 19:14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 A sharp sword comes from his mouth to strike down the nations.

We all stand at the threshold of the fullness of time. God is testing His church on earth: will each of us build an altar and lay down what He has given us in absolute surrender? That surrender will determine the ministry and authority we carry in the days ahead.

Sometimes the LORD wants to give us a new mantle and a new sword, but that requires Him to DISMANTLE and DISARM us. Sometimes those seasons of dismantling and disarming aren't as quick as we'd like, and they can take years, even 3 years.

The LORD has mantles never worn before and authoritative spiritual swords forged for the glory war ahead.

Remember, you must yield to His Sword if you desire to wield it.

Ed Watts · Zion Gate Ministries · Altars of the Voice of the LORD