The Watchmen

Isaiah 21:6 For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
I usually use the KJV in my writing. I'm not stuck on that version, but I prefer it. Just a heads up. If you'd like to follow along, more scripture references are below. Click the passage reference to read the entire passage.
Isaiah 62:6-12, Luke 21:5-36

I was asked by a colleague of mine to do a blog on what it is to be a watchman. A watchman is exactly what it describes. Someone that is called to watch and pray and, when prompted to, proclaim what he sees. The call went out by God to set up watchmen on the walls to sound the alarm of eminent danger, or for the alerting of strangers at the gate, and sometimes to alert the leaders when the strangers have actually entered in to the domain. This person must remain vigilant and sober to the things going on around him. In Isaiah God said that He set watchmen up to literally bombard Heaven day and night, "giving Him no rest" This is a call of intercession and that of revelation. He said to never be silent until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

You have to make this personal. What is YOUR Jerusalem? It could be your body of believers. It could be your city that you are called to or your region or your state or even your nation or nations. The Lord says to prophecy only according to your faith, or, in other words, know your row and stay there. If you are called only to intercede for your church then do so with so much vigor that God thinks that its your church and not His. Don't let Him rest until the vision of the church be fulfilled. This is your field of watching. You cannot see past this scope effectively, but you are just as important to the watchman's ministry as those that are called to be international prayer warriors. Don't begrudge your small beginnings because any type of watchman ministry is no small feat. It is an honor to be called into this ministry. The lives of others have been entrusted to you. Their blood will be required of your hand. Remember the parable of the talents? You have been faithful over small things I now empower you to be over much.

The last thing I want to discuss is what Luke is describing. Here it really gets to talking, if you read between the lines, of what the ministry of the watchman is truly about. Jesus describes about being able to have an understanding of the times that we are living in. He calls us to watch first, then watching brings us to a point of prayer or intercession, then declaration. See a lot of times we can allow what we see to be a distraction and then we begin to declare warnings and such instead of prayer. These warnings were a distraction of the enemy to cause people to become immune, if you would, to your voice. You see a wisely placed word will bring the people to attention but one just blasted out just because you were given some insight could weary the people around you to the point that they will roll their eyes and say, "Here we go again". The part of the watchman not spoken much is the part of being able to discern the timing of things. I continually pray for the spirit of Issachar to rest on me. The spirit of the sons of Issachar is the ability to discern proper timing. An untimely word can cause chaos and confusion, so part of the ministry of the watchman is discerning timing to give the revelations being shown to you through your watching. I always say that I only deliver about 10% of what God is revealing to me. The other 90% is for me to bombard Heaven with.

The reason behind this is because we are created in the image of God. If we truly believe this then we have to understand that our words have the creative power of God in them. Isaiah 55:11, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Either all the Word of God is true or its all a lie.

One final thing, everyone has a call to prayer, but not everyone has a calling to be watchmen. So I declare unto you that are truly called to be watchmen: WATCH AND PRAY!!!