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The place of watchmen is on the wall, looking out into the direction
that he is pointing. The can be lonely, discouraging work. Jesus is
pleading with his watchmen to stay on the walls, where he needs them to
be.
Many watchmen are down in the city chatting with friends, because
they got lonely. Others are on the conference circuit, where the money
is better. Some are busy trolling the internet, but that is not the same
as listening to the Lord. Others grew tired and have gone to sleep.
Others have given up, because they are weary of their warnings being
rejected.
The watchman should not be in the city eating and drinking with the
town’s folk. He should be out on the watchtower looking into the night
(Ron McKenzie – Kingdom Watcher).
Jesus urgently needs his watchmen to get back up on the watchtower
where he has appointed them.
I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest (Is 62:6).
Israel's watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all
mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to
sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They
are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way,
each seeks his own gain (Is 56:10,11).
I appointed watchmen over you and said, 'Listen to the sound of the
trumpet!' But you said, 'We will not listen.' Therefore hear, O nations;
observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth: I am
bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because
they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law (Jer
6:17-19).
God is restoring a watchman anointing to His people. In biblical
times, though a city had strong walls and double gates, security was not
complete without watchmen in their places, shouting, or heralding,
anything they saw that was out of the ordinary. Their job was to warn
the people of impending danger. They would pay with their lives if they
failed to inform the city of an enemy’s approach. If the watchmen were
not alert, cities could fall, territories could be lost and many people
could be slaughtered or forced into captivity.
A Christian prophet is a watchman. His task upon the walls of the
city of God claims him entirely. God acts in and through all that we
are. In everything a Prophet is, the Spirit of God lives and moves and
acts. The Christian prophet’s very life and breath is intercession
within the church (Sanfords.).
However, if we are called to this watchman ministry, let us be
patient in waiting for our placement. If we have a true gift, and
manifest the fruit of the Spirit, our gift will make a place for us. Our
goal must always be first to gain the endorsement of God, not men. If we
want the endorsement of God we must be devoted to truth, integrity, and
submission to His Spirit. If it takes others a while to acknowledge our
calling, while we are waiting we can grow in grace and discernment (Rick
Joyner - The Ministry of a Watchman).
Watchmen and Sheep
A watchman was standing on a watchtower. He saw trouble coming and
told the shepherds to get the sheep into the safety of the fold. The
shepherd asked the watchman to get the sheep into the fold. However,
when the watchman tried to round up the sheep, they just scattered. They
did not know the voice of the watchman. Only when the shepherds heeded
the watchman’s warning and called the sheep did the sheep come into
the fold.
Watchmen stand on the walls of the city of God so that they can see
what God is doing and call the people to respond. Watchmen look out into
the darkness and the distance to see what evil is coming and what God is
doing. Good relationships between pastors and the watchman are
essential. The watchman should communicate what they see to the pastors.
The pastors can then prepare the sheep for what is going to happen. The
sheep know their shepherds and they will respond to them. If they do not
know the voice of the watchmen, they will not respond to them.
Leaders must allow the watchmen to function as God intends, and
watchmen must learn that it is their job only to transmit information,
not to dictate policy (Rick Joyner - The Prophetic Ministry).
The prophet is way ahead of the flock of sheep, perhaps five miles
beyond the next hill. He is on the lookout. There he hears God’s voice
and sees visions, enters the throne-room of God and glimpses something.
It may actually be very good that he is often away from the flock,
because few really understand him. He is interested not so much in
people and what they think of him, but in God’s voice for the
situation (Wolfgang Simson - Houses That Changed the World, p.113).
The watchmen were not the elders in the gates, nor did they have the
authority to open or close the gates of a city. Neither did they have
the authority to mobilise the militia against the enemy. Their job was
to communicate what they saw to those who did have the authority.
Presently, many pastors and elders are trying to do this job for their
congregations, which only distracts them from their true calling. We
must begin to recognise, train, and position those who have this
calling, and establish effective lines of communication with them (Rick
Joyner - The Ministry of a Watchman).
Being on the walls of the city would place one in a position of
elevated perspective to see both a distance outside and inside of the
city. These were trained to recognise both the enemy and their brethren
from a great distance. However, they had no authority to confront
either. They simply gave their information to the elders who sat in the
gates. Only the elders had the authority to either command that the
gates be opened or to sound the alarm (Rick Joyner - The Ministry of a
Watchman).
The seer represents the prophetic dimension by means of his ability
to observe, by his inclination towards watchfulness. He is the watchman,
the protector. He walks the narrow paths of the border areas of the
Kingdom, drawing strength for this isolated work of defence from the
vivid visions and experiences of the heartlands of God's domains. The
prophet's home is a Mizpah, a watchtower, a place for proper judgement
and discernment, 1 Sam 7:6 (Lars Widerberg - The Seer)
The Church has often lacked in having watchmen. She has had a type of
watchman that has watched almost from a position on the floor of the
church and not from the wall. The watchman is a prophet and as such is a
seer and needs to be up high to see beyond the heights that even the
king would see, since the king is not up the wall (Steve Snow - Eagle
Watchman Resources).
Though the prophet is one with the church he yet always stands a
little apart. The Old Testament prophet would have gone ahead to do all
the speaking, or the healing, or whatever was needed. The New Testament
prophet bows his spirit to prayer, unbeknownst to the rest of the body,
and others find themselves healing or teaching or speaking (John and
Paula Sanford - The Elijah Task p. 18,19,20).
Watchman should speak their warnings to the pastors and elders. The
latter provide the warning to their sheep. The sheep know their shepherd
and they will respond to them. If they do not know the voice of the
prophet, they will not respond to them.
The pattern borne out in Scripture shows that a prophet did not go
first to the people, but to the king! For it was the king who held the
responsibility from God to address and lead the people. The prophet
always went directly to the king – not to the people – and God
opened the door of access to that realm (John Paul Jackson - Unmasking
the Jezebel Spirit p.68).
Unpleasant Task
Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and
the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.
And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,
while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has
combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the
parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body,
but that its parts should have equal concern for each other (1 Cor
12:22-25).
Christians are often embarrassed by God's watchmen, as they can be
intense, opinionated or scruffy. Watchmen maybe the eyes of the body,
but they are also the bowels that get rid of the "crap". If
God's watchmen are not functioning effectively in a church, it will fill
up with garbage and become contaminated. So while the watchmen has an
unseemly task, they are important for the functioning of the body and
deserve equal concern and respect.
Clear Sound
When a watchman receives a dream or vision about a cataclysmic event,
they should be very careful about how they give warning. Before
speaking, they should find out the status and meaning of the events they
have seen.
Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready
for battle? (1 Cor 14:8).
A cataclysmic vision or dream may have any of the following possible
meanings.
- a symbolic message with a spiritual interpretation,
- a warning of what Satan is planning, so that we can resist him,
- a warning
event, that is a type of something worse coming,
- an event that may happen soon
- an event that is a long way into the future,
- an event that will only happen, if God's people do not repent.
- a final judgment on a people that has rejected God.
The appropriate response is different for each of these different
types.
Modern Christians have a tendency to assume the worst. We generally
interpret a vision or dream of awful events literally. We also assume
that the event is coming soon and that its coming is certain. This is
often not the case.
Sounding the trumpet is not sufficient. Sharing a vision is not
enough. Watchmen are required to sound the trumpet clearly. When sharing
a vision or dream, they should also explain its meaning. If this does
not happen, God's people will become confused. Too much confusion could
lead to Christians being defeated and God's name being mocked.
During this current season, too many confusing visions are being
shared. Many of these visions have come from the Lord, but because their
meaning is misunderstood, God's people are being confused. We need a
clear sounding of the trumpet to prepare God's people for victory.
Gods Perspective
We must keep God's perspective in mind when interpreting warning
visions. Christians often get so focused on the evil that Satan has
planned that they fail to notice God's response. This gives Satan a
place he does not deserve. He is a loser and all his schemes and plans
will fail. Getting us absorbed in the negative part of a vision is the
enemy's favourite trick for causing us to miss what God is saying and
doing.
This is the worst feature of many "prophecy sites" on the
internet. The bloggers and discussion boards get so absorbed in the evil
being warned against, that they miss what God is saying and promising.
We should fear God, not the devil and his schemes. We should listen very
carefully to what God is saying through a vision.
The watchman's task is not to make Christians afraid, but to show
them how they can be victorious, if they get ready. Most visions are not
about the people of God being defeated, but are a promise that God’s
people can be victorious, if the watchmen do their work. We need
watchmen who can tell us how to get ready.
In 1982, a visiting English preacher called David Pawson shared a
vision of a Commando Army
around New Zealand. The vision promised that
if New Zealand Christians formed into commando units, they would
experience victory when an economic crisis came. Christians immediately
focussed on the crash and when it would come. The name of the vision was
changed to the Coming Bombshell. The challenge to form commando units
was ignored and the promise of victory was lost as Christians became
absorbed with the negative aspect of the word.
I believe that the same problem applies to our interpretation of
Daniel and Revelation. All the negative passages are applied to the
current age. All the promises of victory are pushed to after the second
coming. This gives a total distorted view of God's plan and produces
Pessimistic Christianity.When interpreting visions from God, we should
take off our dark glasses and listen carefully to God's promises of
victory and hope in the light of his word.
They do not want to build ‘a church’, they want the whole city or
nation! They live in the future, for the future, from the future,
constantly pregnant with future developments, and they can prevent it
from becoming a traditional institution only celebrating the past, or a
fossilised monument of history long gone (Wolfgang Simson - Houses That
Changed the World, p.119).
Purpose
The watchmen are not there to boost the name of the enemy and
paralyse God’s people with fear. Their purpose is to warn the people
of danger, while it is still a long way off. This gives the people
living outside the city time to get behind the walls where they will be
safe. The watchman's warning also gives the city leaders time to prepare
their defences, so they can repel the enemy when he comes.
The safety of a city depends on the watchmen being on the watchtower.
It also depends on the leaders at the gate heeding their warning. If the
watchmen and the leaders at the gate of the city each do their task, the
enemy’s plans should be defeated and the city kept safe.
Exposing Evil Plans
Satan generally uses stealth and deception. The success of his plans
depends on Christians not waking up to what is happening until it is too
late to respond. God counters by revealing Satan's plan's to the
watchmen. They can then expose his plans and blow his cover. God reveals
the attacks of the enemy in advance, so that he can be exposed and
defeated.
God’s response to one of Daniel's visions was to send watchers (Dan
4:13-17). The scriptures do not tell us much about them, but they are
clearly very powerful angels. They were able to bring down
Nebuchadnezzar, one of the most powerful rulers that the world has ever
known. Compared to Nebuchadnezzar, Saddam Hussein was a midget, yet the
watchers brought Nebuchadnezzar down from his throne. Watchers are
capable of foiling the worst plans of the enemy. I think that they might
be released by the prayers of the watchmen on the watchtowers.
The role of the watchmen is important. God responds to the attacks of
the enemy by exposing his plans, and countering with something even more
powerful.
Today’s spiritual watchmen are just as important to the kingdom of
God. But the Church has become so familiar and comfortable with the
world that our watchmen may not notice when adverse conditions enter our
boundaries. In this hour God is saying, "Watch the boundaries I
have set for you, so that the enemy does not gain access to your
inheritance." (Chuck Pierce - The Future War of the Church).
These watchmen were especially trained to be able to distinguish the
enemy from their brethren. Only those with the best vision and judgement
were given these Posts. They could not be overly prone to sound the
alarm, or to request that the gates be opened. They had to be accurate
in their discernment. If there were too many false alarms the people
would begin to disregard them. If they were careless and let an enemy in
the gate, they could jeopardise the entire city. This was an extremely
crucial position for which accuracy and dependability were required
(Rick Joyner - The Ministry of a Watchman).
Prophetic Excellence
The widespread acceptance of the prophetic ministry that emerged out of the Charismatic Renewal during the 1970s was a huge step forward for the church, but there is still a long way to go. An emphasis on quantity, rather than quality, was okay while the gifting was re-emerging, but now that it is well established, we should be focussing more on quality.
Daniel and his mates did not just make a splash on Jewish bulletin boards, their insight and ability were recognised by a tough anti-god king.
The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom (Dan 1:19-20).
Daniel was recognised by worldly leaders as being ten times as good as the other wise men of his times. That is why he was asked to serve three different kings in two world empires.
That is what the Christian prophetic ministry should be aspiring to. Where are the Christian prophets who are recognised by the world as being ten times as discerning as Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman. Provided we do not become complacent about the quality of prophecy, that level of gifting could emerge.
God has much more to give than we have seen so far. In the future we will see much more tactical and strategic guidance coming from clear prophetic voices.
The Old Testament prophets did not just predict calamities. They gave tactical advise to local and national leaders (1 Chron 20:13-30). They also revealed God’s long–term plans and strategy and what his people should be doing to participate with God in his work. Moses was a great prophet. He announced God’s plan and timing for establishing his people in the promised land. He also explained what Israel must do to enter in the land.
We have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, whereas in Old Testament times, the activity of the Holy Spirit was intermittent. Therefore, Christian prophets should be at least twice as effective as Old Testament prophets.
We have a long way to go. We must not be satisfied with what we have now, but press in to receive all that God has for us through the prophetic ministry.
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