49th SWAT Teaching (notes from Mary Kross)
I did not have notes on this teaching as Holy Spirit taught through me. I am blessed that Mary Kross took notes and sent them to me.
SWAT 49 6/5-9/2023 notes DAY 1 DEB MILLER ROBINSON
My name is Deb Miller Robinson. I'm from Eugene, OR. My Cherokee people come from Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. They settled in Oklahoma. Then my parents moved to Oregon in the late 1940s for work in the timber area. So I was born and raised in Oregon. I was not raised on a reservation. I had to seek out my Cherokee culture. And I'm still seeking it out because there's so much to learn.
THE BEGINNING OF RESTORED TRUST
When the missionaries came, there was an exchange that was supposed to happen and that exchange was the word and the spirit. The natives had the spirit and the missionaries had the word. That exchange didn't happen because of distrust. But we are now in a time where that exchange is happening. We now are beginning to restore trust again. That is what happened at the Sacred Gathering in Texas was that we've rebuilt that trust. There are repentance, forgiveness, and lot of tribes coming together to meet one another for the first time, to come together in unity because we want to move forward. It's time to move forward in the power of the unity that each one of us carry. I don't want to stay stuck. I see so many believers or Christians that are stuck. Stuck where they're at. They just can't move forward, no matter how much prayer or healing they have had, they're just stuck. And sometimes it's up to us to get unstuck.
MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF WEAPONS
So I have a team back in Oregon and originally it was a tambourine dance team. We knew how to make noise and we knew how to war in a different way. I thank God that He is teaching us, with each season that we've gone through, to war differently. What we did in the past is not working right now. We're in a new season, a new time, a new warfare. There is time to pull out the weapons of the past, but it's time now to receive the new weapons. And it's time to know what your weapons are. There are many different weapons. A soldier knows his weapon well. He knows how to use it and is familiar with it. He does not let anybody else use his weapon. The soldier knows his armor and he puts on the armor every day. That's really important so that you don't get hit with the arrows that come your way. We must always be prepared for battle whether you have an assignment coming up or not, you know what they say, In season and out of season.
RELATIONSHIP HONOR AND RESPECT EACH OTHER
I have learned many great things at SWAT. I've been coming to SWAT off and on since 2012. I learned the importance of relationship. I learned the importance of honoring and respecting what each and every person had to bring and I had to learn that. I had to learn that instead of having an attitude, when someone was manifesting or what someone was doing or saying, I had to learn to respect what they had to say and to listen. I learned in a greater way to honor and respect the teachings, along with the leaders and teachers. We have to remember God put them in our lives for a reason. May be to challenge you to be more in Creator’s word.
LISTEN AND SPEAK TO THE LAND
Listening is very important. We have to learn to listen. We have two ears and one mouth. When you're speaking all the time you can't listen. But you know sometimes it's just time to sit down and be quiet. What was God saying to you? Have you ever gone by the river and listened to the river? What is the river saying? How about sitting on the land? Does the land know your voice? We each have a voice that needs to be released. We have a voice that creator God has put in us to hear. He wants to hear our voice. The land wants to hear your voice. All creation wants to hear your voice. And that is a mighty thing that we have. We each have a voice that needs to be released. God wants to hear your voice. The land wants to hear your voice. All creation wants to hear your voice. Can we not honor the Creator who created us with our voices. He gave us a voice, and especially the women because their voices have been squished so much and pushed down so much. Let’s honor the voices that have gone before us. They have worked hard for their voices to be heard, especially us as native people. We are created to speak and create; it's our part to partner with Him to redeem it, to refresh it, to call out its beauty. Because when the land is under the evil influence of the enemy it sometimes loses its beauty. The earth is very important. The land is very important it's up to us to bring it back to God’s original intent, to the original beauty it carried.
WE HAVE AUTHORITY TO BRING IT BACK
We can blame Adam and Eve all we want but we need to blame Satan. He thinks he has a hold on us but we have all authority to go forth and bring back creation to its original beauty and purpose.. That's why we must use our voice. Sometimes it's praying with your whole body and sometimes it's being silent and just walking around, releasing your prayers. I've been taught that as we walk, as we take our steps, the prayer of our feet go out. The God of peace will crush Satan under our feet. Are you doing that when you're walking? You better believe it! Jesus is in you. Let's represent Him well. Be intentional with your words. There's life or death in the power of the tongue. I’m going to go one step farther. Be intentional with your thoughts because it's the thoughts that get me down all the time. I have to battle with that daily. I have to tell the enemy where to go and I don't have a problem telling satan that. This is my land. Get off my promised land! God promises it to us. We have to take care of it. We need to learn to steward it. And the host people stewart land well.
PREPARE FOR AN ASSIGNMENT CHOOSE YOUR TEAM WISELY
So when you are called on an assignment, you have to prepare for it. I have been called on many assignments and each one is different. Each battle is different and that's why the weapons are different. Who goes with you? Choose a team wisely. If you have someone on your team that is wounded, have them stay back and pray. They’re still part of the team. On my team I always tell them it's up to them to ask if they are to go or to stay back and pray because that's a vital part to a team.
INNER HEALING NECESSARY
I started with a team of about six women. One year God told me to take the team through inner healing. I lost three people. Two people stayed with me and we went through inner healing that whole year. He said. not to take any assignments that year and I had more invites that year than any other year! Are you going to be obedient? So we went through inner healing individually and then eventually as a team. And my inner healing was so profound. It was like I came out of there and the trees and nature woke up to you. That veil was removed. It was like I could see them waving, you know, the trees and the leaves and all of that. So it was just a great awakening in me.
Does The Land Change You
So has the land ever changed you when you go on assignment? Yes, it does if you're willing to receive from it. You know we're very good at going out and praying over the land, bringing blessings, removing curses, but there comes a point where you think about it. What happened to you when you were on that assignment? What did God do through the land to bless you?
It was probably 2016 when I was out in the backyard in a hammock and I asked God, ‘I want to hear the trees talk. I want to hear what nature is having to say’. And a couple of weeks later, maybe even a couple of months, I was walking the dog and I went by this one oak tree. Beside it was another oak tree that was cut down. I walked by, minding my own business and I hear, ‘that was my husband. They killed him’. And I'm looking around. What do I do with this? And I just said, ‘You know what? You have all these other trees around you to support you. You turn back to the Creator who created you’. I'd like to turn creation back to creator because it hasn't known Him in a while because of what the enemy has done. It forgot its purpose.
SWAT AND SOME OF MY ASSIGNMENTS
SWAT Military Style
The 1st day was like, ‘Oh my God, what did I get myself into? The 2nd day, “Get me out of here”! The 3rd day, I cried all day long. Sherry kept handing me Kleenex’s because she was next to me. My fear was memorizing SWAT orders. By Friday, happy dance—I can do it!
I learned who I am, the authority I carry, how to be a better leader, the importance of relationship and bonding. When you fall, someone is there to pick you up. It taught me to be a better leader, to know who I am, to know the authority that I carry and to know the importance of bonding.
In 2019 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Do you know who I called? Vivian--she knows how to hit that target. I called Jeannie and then, of course, my team. They knew before anybody else. Because I knew I had to go for the intercessors, I called Sharon to put out a request. I need help in this. Sometimes you need someone to strengthen your arms. Cindy took communion for me every day because I couldn't. All I watched was a bunch of YouTube shows on tiny houses. I don't know why. When you're in need ask for help. Give someone a call, send them an e-mail, a text and say I need prayer. I will send out requests when we're going on assignments for coverage. It's OK to ask for help. One thing I learned from SWAT was, it's OK to make a mistake. I was so fearful of making a mistake. But it's OK. You'll learn from that mistake and you'll do it differently next time
ISRAEL
In Israel the word of God opens up to you because you've been to places that you read about in the Bible.
Our assignment was to go to the 12 gates of the land and pray.
I went with a team that did not know how to be a team and a leader that did not know how to lead. There was division on the team because we met another team there. You name it, it happened. And because we didn't know the importance of how to come together in unity, we all came with our own agenda. There were some people that probably got really wounded because we were young in our understanding and didn't know the importance of unity.
So that was very difficult but what I learned from that was how to be a leader and how to build relationship with my team, not how to boss them around, tell them what to do or not calling out a person's gifts that they had to bring
SWAZILAND
The land of Swaziland was a good land. We were there for six weeks. Way too long for someone that has never gone that long before.
I learned about the King of Swaziland, his kingdom and culture. I would say if you're going on assignment out of the country, unless you really know who you are, I would go, two weeks max. You can handle that and learn more about you in an assignment.
What the land taught me, if there is no unity on your team before you go, there will not be unity when you are in another land. This is an open door for the enemy to come in and cause sabotage. You will be challenged to the max and challenged in your authority. You must trust the leader, if you do not then it is not your assignment. The land desired unity.
TIBET
We were in the high mountains, elevation over 8000 feet high. There were all these tents by a river. They were having a 50-year Jubilee Celebration.
We were invited to come and dance. China was having a 50year celebration for Tibet. God had told me to start putting salt in the river so the land and the people wouldn't be barren, so I had been doing that on previous assignment.. We put salt in the river and blessed the land and the river. The funny thing about this, is that they had monks there and one monk was out at midnight watching us and following us, his spirit knew we were up to something. We had to really go undercover before we put salt in the river.
There were three of us.
When we were in our tent, there were just women in the tent, there was a man that came in. I opened my eyes and I see him rustling through our stuff. They told us to sleep with your valuables. Don't leave them in your backpack or suitcase. So I have this little bitty shofar which is hard to blow and I got one blow out and he left as we were of course freaking out. And so our host called their relatives from the village to come and protect us. We settled down and pretty soon we hear click, click, click, click, click (we had closed the tent with safety pins as there wasn’t a zipper). Another man came in, pulled out a hip sword, and I don't know what he said, probably, ‘give me all your money’ in his language. I told him I have no money and He grabbed something I thought was the leader’s backpack and actually, it was my shawl…I grabbed it back and he left. by that time, the guys from the village came with longer swords, they were actually laughing at our freaking out when they came in. So yes we got settled in but still on alert.
When God calls you, He'll tell you what He’ll do. He was going to protect us and He did. Before we left for this assignment there was a prophecy that God had us in a bubble and no harm would come to us. We must go with confidence in God and what He wants you to do. The land welcomed us in what Creator-God ask of us.
RWANDA
We went to Rwanda on their 10 year anniversary of their genocide. We had entered a church and I could hear screams in the spirit from the genocide. We were told the church had a priest, who had turned in the Tutsi’s, who were hiding in the church from the Hutu’s who were coming to kill them. And you just pray. What I heard in the land of Rwanda was a humbleness and they really want a blessing. The Tutsi’s and Hutu’s were coming together in unity, forgiveness and moving forward for their land to heal.
In Rwanda the kids are in with the worship and they worship for hours, not just 3 songs. The people are humble and they really want to bless each other and honor God in all that He had done for them.
The land taught me in the midst of evil, God can use it's people to forgive and come together to move forward as one.
INDIA
In India it was a challenge because you had many different gods over there, especially the Hindu god. What was hard about India was learning about their caste system. If you're low caste or no caste you can't do anything unless God makes a way for you to do it. There is the high caste, I don't know there's a middle caste but there's a low caste and a no caste. The no caste lived in the garbage. It was like where we dump our garbage. It was heart wrenching to see they had no choice.
We went to the villages and passed out one cup of rice for the widows to eat for one month.
The pastor that invited us, his wife's mother had kicked the wife out because she became a Christian. That had been going on at least over five years when we went to that village. God opened up that mother's heart and she accepted Jesus.
The pastor wanted me to wear my regalia because when he came to America, he stayed with a Navajo man, and they understood culture. So I wore my regalia and because of that, there was a high caste man who invited us to his house to have a feast and to share culture, as he put it. It ended up he came to us and said, ‘You must share the Prince of Peace because I can't’. You can and they'll accept it. And that's what happened! So you come to realize even though as poor as they are, they are very rich in that when they know Jesus they're very on fire for Jesus.
The land taught me, we must bring blessings and honor to all people upon it.
ENGLAND SCOTLAND AND WALES
We had one month to prepare and to get finances which was $2000 each. I had part of the finances and then I gave up I'm going (the enemy comes in this way) maybe God doesn't want us to go this time… on Saturday, we were to leave on a Wednesday, is when God is saying you're going. We were challenged. Are you going to press in and go without the finances or not? Sometimes you press in. Sometimes you know you're not supposed to go. He said press in, press in and go. I asked God if I was to go to let me know in a song lyric on the way to our team meeting. I heard a song Even Tho by Casting Crowns a lyric about those of little faith and a little faith is all I have right now, I knew this was talking to me.
We were to pray before the coronation of the King-- praying on the route he would come back on, and to bless the land.
Two of us went and one stayed back and prayed. And when we got over there, we were meeting with many local intercessors.
(One of the governmental intercessors said to me, I’ve repented and repented to the natives for what we’ve done. I can’t repent anymore. I said that we’re done with the repentance because there is no relationship. You guys repent and then you leave. It’s time for relationship for us to move forward in unity, together as a people group to stand as one. If we don’t honor what each one has to bring, how are we going to go forward?)
When you go to different nations, territories etc., I strongly advise you to meet up with the local intercessors. They have the authority you need to pray in the area. Thats what I’ve been taught, especially in another country.
On this this trip we went to the statue of Pocahontas. She was 9 or 10 when she met John Smith. He was 27. Disney lied. Because we read the story from her tribe, from the natives, then we read the story from England--two different stories. They kidnapped her when she was @15 years of age, she did not volunteer to go. She was kidnapped to be used as ransom for prisoners from England because her father was the Chief. Her father released the prisoners but they took her anyway to England and did not release her back to her father or husband. In fact they killed her husband. She met and married a guy by the name of John Rawls in England, when she was older. She was removed from her culture so we got to go and redeem that and that was an out of box experience for me. Remember our spirit lives on when we die, only our flesh dies. This is what God told me to do. I want your spirit just speak to her spirit to call her back home to her people. I want you to ask the Brits with you to release her. And that's what we did. I can't tell you what all happened in the spiritual realm but I know something deep happened. You will never know all you do when you're obedient to do what God asks you to do. It may be years later and it may be not until you get to heaven that you will find out. When she was scheduled to go back to her tribe, this is what English history said; She had pneumonia and died, but she ate dinner and immediately died. What her tribal people say; she was poisoned and died at age 21.
So just be obedient to what God calls you to do. Be open to change. Be flexible on your assignments. You may go and you think you're going to do this this and that. You get there, touch the land and God changes things. Be open to what Holy Spirit has to say. Are you listening? It comes back to that listening again. And in Hebrew it's hear and do. This land taught me to do warfare out of the box.
The land taught me to rebuild ancient ruins in the spirit and to come out of your box in the spirit to bring life again.
KINGS TRAIL COWBOY CHURCH in WHITEWRIGHT TEXAS
And God said you're not researching-- research it. Look at your mother's lineage. What happened was the church had land donated to it. The people's last name was Wilson. My grandmother's last name is Wilson. Her father was born in the same county. As White Wright Texas. So we went there and I would have to say I have never ever seen a repentance like from the pastor. He's 6 foot 4 and when we go out on the land. A lot of times when leadership doesn't know who you are, especially that you're native, they don't trust that…So some of his leadership was for us coming, some were not. The pastor knew what God said. We had it on Yom Kippur last year and I was asked to go first and speak. So what I did was I picked up the dirt.
I released the land to the pastor and each one that's in leadership. The Pastor later after protocol gifts had been given by us, fell on his knees and repented to the Cherokees because the governor or the mayor of that area made the Cherokees leave. It was like their Trail of Tears. So the pastor repented and wept and I had never ever seen a true repentance like this. And we had a native there who was Eastern Cherokee. God told him to bring a bucket of water and wash the pastor's feet and his wife's feet with the towel that his great grandmother used to do feet washing with as an evangelist. All of us were weeping and it was such a profound land assignment that we were all changed. We all build a relationship and to this day I could call him and he or he would call us and we'd be there in a minute. It's those kinds of relationships that need to happen.
I was not the only one praying. Other natives brought prayers and brought protocol gifts releasing mighty prayers.
The land taught me everyone needed to release their voice and embrace a deeper honoring. with the Ones who are on the land.
There’s just been so many assignments that we've been on and those are some of the highlights that I wanted to share with you. When you go on an assignment, really be prepared daily. Really sit down and know what God is saying to do. If He doesn't call you to it, don't go.
THE POWER OF UNITY
That’s why the power of unity is so important. I can't stress that enough. And my team since we've gone through inner healing and I highly recommend this to leaders and to everyone. Go through inner healing no matter who you are. You need it. We all need it. Go as a team. You need it, because it makes that bond stronger. When we go out as a team, that's the first thing that people pick up on, is the power of unity that we carry. We work hard at it. We open up the communication when something's bothering each one, or when we're being correct. That's a big one. If you are corrected, it's OK. Move with that and receive it. Don't get so upset and not receive it. Think about it, is it true? How do I change? What do I need to do? In your team, have that unity, that communication; sit down and talk. We have circles. We have a teaching circle. We have a circle where we can just sit and look at one another with oneness. When we're in a circle, you can see everybody speaking. You can be part of their story. Release your story. Your story needs to be heard to bring healing to you, to bring healing to others.
DIFFERENT AUTHORITY ON THE TEAM
What you go through, you have authority. I have authority now over cancer that I did not have before I went through it. Those who have been abused have authority over that. We have different authority on our team because of what each one has gone through. And honor that. Have them come out and pray over someone that only they can touch in a deeper way because they've gone through it. I don't understand everything that one has gone through like others do. So honor that part. Do not go out by yourself. You're just getting yourself lined up for abuse from the enemy. This type of training (SWAT) teaches you what you should do and what you can't do in order for you to keep safe and for your family to keep safe. You don't want to open the door to the enemy coming in, attacking your family, your kids, your grandkids, your land, animals etc. You have a responsibility in what you've been trained to do because you know the right way to bring healing and restoration. This is part of your protection over your family.
STAND AS ONE IN LOVE
So my word of wisdom is, ‘stand as one in love’. You can make a difference. For creation to be set free. You can make a difference for dispelling the darkness out. So go forth in what God has called you to do. And remember He is with you. He is for you. He will never leave you or forsake you.
Deb Miller Robinson - Eagle Warrior
Taught at SWAT 49 June 2023
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