Watchman on the Walls

It is 3:06 a.m. and God has summoned me out of bed for two reasons. I am to write this blog calling other people to take their watch on the walls of their cities and I am watch over Paradise, TX in prayer this morning. God appoints the watchmen over cities. It is a privileged ministry with a price tag. When God appoints you to be a watchman He can call you to take your watch anytime He wants.

I recall reading about one man that God awoke every night between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. Those were hours set aside to pray. This continued to be his habit for years and what did God do? He ushered in the Great Welsh Revival where God saved 150,000 in a year in that country.

"Jerusalem, I have appointed watchman on your walls; they will never be silent, day or night. You, who remind the Lord, no rest for you! Do not give Him rest until He establishes and makes her Jerusalem the praise of the earth." [Is 62:6-7]

God appoints the watchmen. Many times I have made emotional decisions when it comes to a life devoted to prayer. I have read about other prayers warriors or heard someone talk about prayer and I jumped in with both feet only to have that commitment fade with time. Watchmen are not called out of emotionalism. They are called and appointed by God. They understand the seriousness of the task at hand. The enemy is scheming every perverted and wicked thing possible to defeat the armies of the living God. He goes about like a roaring lion seeking to devour. [I Pet 5:8] While the church slumbers the enemy advances snaring people into the vice of sin they will spend years trying to be freed from. Marriages are under assault. Our schools are a war zone for sex, drugs, and decadent behavior.

I am grateful for a group of ladies who have been standing on the walls of Paradise, TX for decades in prayer. They gather weekly to pray for family, friends, and the Paradise community. I am grateful for a group of ladies who gather each morning to stand on the walls of Seminole, TX in prayer and have been doing so for the past eighteen months. I know of a church in Lubbock, TX where as many as 500 gather weekly to stand on the walls of Lubbock and keep watch over the city. I have read of a church in Brooklyn, NY where as many as a thousand people gather on Tuesday nights to pray for the transformation of the lost and the city. I have read of a church in Seoul, Korea where thousands of people gather every morning at 5:00 a.m. and all night on Friday nights to stand in the gap for their nation and the world.

At this very moment someone is praying and keeping watch somewhere close to you. God appointed them. God placed the desire in them to join this vital ministry. Most of the time you will never know who the watchmen are. They do not advertise their ministry. Night and day they take up their post and pray on tirelessly. Day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. These prayer warriors persevere and will not give up or give in. They relentlessly pound the doors of Heaven trusting God for salvations, revival and spiritual awakening. They protect their communities as they detect the work of the enemy and direct the full arsenal of Heaven against the enemy's onslaught.

Keeping watch is a tiring work. In fact watchmen are challenged to take no rest for themselves nor give God any rest as night and day petitions are brought to the throne of grace. For many of these men and women their prayers will long outlive them. Even today you might benefit from prayers prayed long ago that are still coming to fruition.

Do you long for spiritual transformation so real and dramatic that your town would become a praise in the earth? Do you long for the very mention of your town to invoke images of the glory of God rather than the gore of the evil one? God has done it in the past and watchmen cry out for God to do it again.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a lady who longs to devote her whole life to prayer. She is actively seeking to simplify her life so as to take even longer watches on the walls of her city and for those she loves. I am humbled to be a beneficiary of her watches in prayer. She challenges me and inspires me to keep devoting myself to prayer no matter how long the delays in seeing the answers are.

Thank God for the watchmen in your community. This very hour someone somewhere is taking their post and keeping watch in prayer. Somebody is crying out to God and trusting God to push back the enemy on your front. Thank God for those appointed to keep watch over you and those you love.