Watchmen on the Walls

Watchmen on the Walls


[Is 62:7-8] On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.


There is a lot of talk about wanting revival but little talk about the prayer necessary to give birth to a Sovereign move of the Holy Spirit. We can write about revival, read about the great revivals from our past, plan and organize revival meetings, but the one thing far too many of us seem unwilling to do is to give ourselves whole heartedly to be watchmen and watchwomen on the walls of our cities crying out to God for help.
I am grateful that there is and has always been a remnant of God’s people who have heeded God’s call to be watchmen. God appoints such people. He sets them in every city and deposits them in churches of all denominations. These are people who understand the grave responsibility of being intercessors for their cities and communities. The word “watchmen” means “to guard, to protect, and to have charge of.”
Through fervent intercessions God has established people to guard their communities in prayer. The natural question arises, whom are they guarding against. Our enemy is Satan. Jesus identifies Satan’s mission in [Jn 10:10] “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Souls are both deceived into eternal damnation and destroyed. Lives are torn apart by the wicked schemes of the Prince of Darkness. He has declared war on the churches of every town and municipality.
Tragically in many places the church has fallen asleep on their watch while the enemy continued to advance and wreak carnage on sleepy little towns and throughout great metropolitan areas. The morale climate changed while the watchmen drifted off to sleep totally unaware of the devastation taking place on their watch. God has given the church a charge to protect and to fight for our towns in prayer. We must take back ground lost the enemy through believing prayer. It is our duty as believers to protect our children, teenagers, singles, families, and our congregations through constantly entreating the Lord for help.
Isaiah says of those watchmen that they all day and all night did not keep silent. The word “silent” means to hold the peace, to be quiet, to be hushed, and to be inactive. We need churches filled with warriors of the faith who will take their post in prayer whether night or day and continually offer up requests and petitions. We must never allow our appeals to Heaven be hushed nor the prayer watch ministries in our congregations to become inactive. We cannot give into our flesh who does not want to pay the price to stand guard over our cities. When Jesus called the disciples to pray with Him and to keep watch in [Matt 26] He found them sleeping. “And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘So, you men could not keep watch for one hour. Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” [Matt 26:40-41] After going away to pray by Himself the disciples did not heed His instructions. When Jesus returned He found them sleeping again. [Matt 26:43] “And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.”
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The church has far too long taken the path of least resistance. Prayer is work. Intercessory prayer is even harder work. You are literally going to war in the heavens and it is draining, demanding, and the flesh hates that. The flesh wants to do what is easy, convenient, and comforting. Our flesh would rather sleep than supplicate. Our flesh would rather nap than to prayerfully navigate the course for both the saved and unsaved in our own backyards.
Night and day there are some churches that continually stand guard over their territory in prayer. These are the ones who have learned to pray in shifts and not let.
eir be a breach in the walls. Like Paul, they have learned to pray without ceasing. [I Thess 5:17] In fact [Is 62:7] reads, “…all day and all night they will never keep silent.” The word “never” means there will be prayer going on continually and perpetually.
One form those prayers can take is the continual reminder to the Lord of the days in the past when He worked mightily. I am talking about days like on Mount Carmel when the Lord humbled a whole nation at His display of power in [I Kings 18:36-39]. God brought everyone to their knees in humility and reverence after Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple in [II Chron 7:1-3]. His radiance, splendor, and weighty presence drenched the temple so fully no one could enter. In Acts thousands upon thousands were being saved in response to the corporate prayer gatherings of that fledgling force.
Like Gideon we can look at the spiritual devastation of our land and say, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian.” [Judges 6:13]
The Lord has not abandoned us. Quite to the contrary it is we who have abandoned Him in prayer. We have not continually and perpetually sought His help. We have put our trust in the chariots of ingenuity and in the horses of our own resources while forsaking trust in God for aid. [Ps 20:7] Where are the all the miracles? They are at the fingertips of God waiting to be pleaded for by watchmen and watchwomen who refuse to be satisfied with living in an age of miracle drought. There are appointed intercessors on the walls of this nation and globe who continually remind the Lord of our need and of His precious promises. Where are the revivals we have read about in the pages of history? Revival will never come to a church content to live without it and satisfied with the status quo.
Where are the prayer gatherings in your city? Are their prayer watches taking place or have the watchmen given into the flesh and their eyes have fallen heavy with slumber? Isaiah exhorts us that those intercessors are to take no rest for themselves nor give God any rest. The word “rest” means to cease, pause, or grow silent. Praying to guard our communities and congregations is not easy. In fact, it is inconvenient and will cost us in time, energy, and may even cost us sleep. There are places in this world where the saints gather all night to seek the Lord. They still have to get up and go to work he next day but somehow God gets them through and they heed His command to take no rest for themselves and to give Him no rest either. They listen and surrender to the calling and desire of the Spirit and resist the flesh that is weak and too easily wants to quit.
What’s the point of all this praying? It is pray and watch until God establishes our cities as a reference point for His praise and His glory on the earth. We pray and watch so that when people hear of our towns and our churches they immediately think of our great God and give Him public thanks and adoration for the work He not only has done but continues to do. His renown, His fame, must be the true desire of our souls. [Is 26:8]
What is happening on your watch? Is God wining the victory or has the enemy gained more territory? Are the watchmen at their posts on the walls interceding on behalf your city or have they drifted off into dull spiritual slumber? Are the watchmen gaining breakthrough on the enemy’s strongholds? I have said it before and I will say it again. I do not apologize for calling the church to corporate prayer no matter how inconvenient it is. We make time for everything else under the sun. I say it is high time we make time to pound the doors of heaven for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ in our churches, and our sister churches around us. May we pray until God makes your town and my town of Paradise, TX a praise on the earth.