Being a Watchman

I am hoping to open people’s hearts and minds to an area that is very much needed in the Church, but has been given very little freedom or acceptance.

Being a Watchman on the wall can be very challenging.  Most people categorize you as being a heretic or demon-focused.  But what most don’t understand is that your focus is shaped by your Call.  It doesn’t really matter what you are called to, you will find that your perception is tied to that Call.

Most who are called to be Watchmen experience rejection, being ignored, being reprimanded and stifled, even jealousy from others.  This brings me to a concern that I’ve had for the Church.

²⁰And now there are [certainly] many limbs and organs, but a single body.

²¹And the eye is not able to say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.  ²²But instead, there is [absolute] necessity for the parts of the body that are considered the more weak.  ²³And those [parts] of the body which we consider rather ignoble are [the very parts] which we invest with additional honor, and our unseemly parts and those unsuitable for exposure are treated with seemliness (modesty and decorum), ²⁴Which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so adjusted (mingled, harmonized, and subtly proportioned the parts of) the whole body, giving the greater honor and richer endowment to the inferior parts which lack [apparent importance], ²⁵So that there should be no division or discord or lack of adaptation [of the parts of the body to each other], but the members all alike should have a mutual interest in and care for one another.  ²⁶And if one member suffers, all the parts [share] the suffering; if one member is honored, all the members [share in] the enjoyment of it.  ²⁷Now you [collectively] are Christ's body and [individually] you are members of it, each part severally and distinct [each with his own place and function].

(1 Corinthians 12:20-27, Amplified Bible)

The above passage of scripture is, and rightly so, often used in Church today as a way to encourage people to get involved.  There are a lot of areas in the Church that are often left either unmanned or undermanned till such encouragement is necessary.  But there is another side to the usage of this passage that Watchman deal with.  The side that unwittingly causes some to hesitate.

It is easy to welcome those who are good with finances to get involved in the Finance Ministry.  It is relatively easy to get singers to join the Worship team, teachers to teach Sunday School.  There are gifts and talents that are readily used and encouraged in the Church that seem to have no recruitment struggles.  But what of those who are called to operate in areas that are not so popular?

Everybody wants to be a Prophet because of how glamorous it looks; the “glory” that people tend to equate with the Gift.  The Church has become more and more accepting of this supposed “Call” that has become popular with the many who have “benefited” from it.  But what about the Elijah-types?  The Jeremiahs?

I do not believe that a person has to be a prophet to be a watchman as many are  called to do certain things by the Lord.

When someone gets up to proclaim that the Lord is pronouncing a blessing upon the Congregation, we welcome that person with open arms.  But how does the Church react to the person who comes to say, “Thus says the Lord, there are those of you who think it is okay to participate in Hindu practices.  But today, the Lord says REFRAIN!  Separate yourselves from such things and repent.  For a time, remove yourself from the Worship Team until you have been cleansed.“  Most likely, that “Person” will not be given the microphone anytime soon after that.

Watchmen on the Wall….those who are called to bring correction to the Church.

¹I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: ²Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching.  ³For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, ⁴And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.  ⁵As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry.

(2 Timothy 4:1-5, Amp.)

They are those who are blessed to instantly know and feel the Heart of God when certain issues come up.  They readily sense how God feels about the matter so much so that they can feel whatever it is He is feeling.  He has made them sensitive to His heart.  They are those who have been made to perceive things based on the Call that is on their lives, especially in this time of widespread apostasy.  Those who can clearly identify the enemy, no matter what form he comes in.  Those whose job it is to keep watch over what comes in, and what shouldn’t have.

These people usually see in black and white; there is no gray area.  This is because that is the way that God made them.  Something rises up in them when their alert system is triggered.  Just like a repair man would react when he sees something that needs to be repaired, something in him just clicks.  He can’t help it, it’s just in him.

Take a moment and picture in your mind the soldiers who are assigned to protect this Country.  They stand on the wall on guard and alert.  But they are not looking for visitors who are looking to enjoy the benefits of this Country; they are looking for the invaders who mean to do us harm.  These soldiers appreciate the freedoms and the benefits of this Country and understand the importance of protecting it.  They are just like you and I.  However, because of what they are called to do, they are ever mindful of the “enemy” and understand that he is always trying to find a way to get in.  This doesn’t mean that they are trying to give the enemy any glory, they are simply focused on what they are called to do.

The Bible vividly speaks of the last day apostasy (See Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 Timothy 4:1-5), yet few seem to stop to ask themselves if they are contributing in any way to the apostasy, or even if they may be caught up in it.  We do yoga and explain it away by saying that we are strong enough in the Lord and that we know Who we serve; as though that is the way we should measure why we should or should not do things.  We use secular music or embrace “Christian” artists who use secular music/musicians with the excuse that it all belongs to God, or that we use what we have to in order to “get them in here.”  We engage in and endorse things that the Lord would have us steer clear from, thinking the activity is harmless, not realizing that the enemy will use the very things that appear harmless to trap us.

How much of this do we actually take to God in prayer?  How many of us choose to avoid the use of or engagement in anything until we have heard clearly from the Lord?  Most usually will move forward thinking that if He hasn’t gone out of His way to answer us, it must be okay, not realizing that sometimes God’s silence is connected to His teaching us to be patient in waiting on Him.

⁸Saul waited seven days, according to the set time Samuel had appointed. But Samuel had not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from Saul.  ⁹So Saul said, Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering [which he was forbidden to do].  ¹⁰And just as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came! Saul went out to meet and greet him.  ¹¹Samuel said, What have you done? Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines were assembled at Michmash, ¹²I thought, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord. So I forced myself to offer a burnt offering.  ¹³And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly! You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God which He commanded you; for the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever;¹⁴But now your kingdom shall not continue; the Lord has sought out [David] a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince and ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

(1 Samuel 13:8-14, Amp.)

If we really want the heart of God, wouldn’t we ask Him first, and respond to what He says rather than what we think? 

There are people who are called to know, understand, and teach worship.  There are people who are called to know, understand, and teach the Bible.  There are those who are called to know, understand, and teach finances, youth issues, etc.  But there are also those who are called to know, understand, and teach on other types of things, which usually cause discomfort for most.  But why, you may ask, is it necessary?

It is correction; a form of risk management intended to keep you from the apostasy.

When Honda builds its vehicles, they run various tests to see if they can make something malfunction, then they focus on how to keep it from malfunctioning.  They build into the system different malfunction deterrents in order to keep their cars on the top seller’s lists.  I’m not sure if this is still true, but I remember a time when Honda didn’t offer incentives.  Why?  They didn’t have to.  They knew they had the best and had no need to compromise.  If you wanted the best, you bought from them at their asking price.   People buy Hondas because they know the vehicle will last.  They know they are getting a quality machine that will perform in accordance to its price.  We accept this no-compromise attitude from Honda (otherwise, we would have forced them to offer incentives); why do we think that God should resort to compromise with us?  But let’s get back to that later.

The point is that there is a group of people in the Church who have in some ways been stifled or made to feel such.  But what the Church fails to realize is that they are just as needed, if not more so, as the Teacher, the Evangelist, the Worship Leaders, or even the “God’s going to bless you” Prophets.  Without correction, the Church would become a weakened example of God’s Power by becoming a potpourri of the worldly mixture that Jesus called us out of.  How do you deny some Hindu practices, but say others are okay?  How is it okay to listen to some secular music (secular means without God), but say others are okay?

It may seem like these things are petty or too vast in number to spend time studying out.  Well, that’s what the Watchmen are for.  It is their Call.  It is their passion.  Some focus on the power and effects of music, some focus on spiritualism and the dangers of it, and some focus on the more intense stuff like demonic infestation, etc.  There are some who can walk into your home and immediately tell you what you need to get rid of; things that are offenses to the Lord that may not be obvious to you.  There are some who can listen to you talk and tell you what problems you are dealing with in life because they know and recognize what spirits are in operation in your life based on what you say.  I know it’s uncomfortable, but instead of being overwhelmed with how much knowledge is out there to be obtained, focus on whether or not a part of the Body is being detained by our unwillingness to hear the “uncomfortables” that come from Godly correction.

There is not a Pastor, Bishop, Apostle, or whatever you call your Leader, in the world who can cover all of the different subjects that need to be dealt with in the Church.  That’s why He called different people to do different things.  But when we choose not to embrace a Call because it leaves people uncomfortable, or because we “don’t see anything wrong with something” that the person called is coming against, we cripple the Church.  There is a consequence to our actions.  When we are involved in things that are displeasing to God, we set ourselves up for failure.  His Grace has gotten us by in a lot of areas, but the results still come forth a little further down the road.

If the Church used those who are called to correct the Church in the capacity that God intended, the Church would have so much more power and see such a deeper move of God.  Many Churches will allow a Person to bring a word of correction if they usually bring a positive word.  But if a Person’s primary Call is correction, they are looked at as negative people and are usually not given the microphone.  This is backwards in that we should look for a Person to correct before looking for him to uplift.  (Jeremiah 1:10 – notice the order in which he is appointed to work.)

We are careful to encourage balance when addressing others; being sure to say things the right way or to come at them in the right spirit.  And I’m all for that.  I believe there is a right way to do everything.  But the fear of offending usually tends to choke out the true Elijahs and Jeremiahs.  The imbalance produces a Church filled with all the things people want, and not enough of what they need to keep them where God would have them.  We are often treated with indifference and looked upon as going off on the deep end; the process of not being acknowledged at all.

Joel Osteen doesn’t talk about sin in his church because there are enough negative things in the world to focus on already, and so he only focuses on the “positive things."  That’s equivalent to only cleaning the rooms in your house that no one is ever in.  But the dust and the microorganisms, and whatever else is laying dormant, will effect your health sooner or later.   You can take your car to the car wash once a week every week for as long as you have your car.  But if you never clean the inside, which will effect you the most, sooner or later, it will be seen by those looking in. 

Now, back to the compromise issue… By choosing not to embrace the Watchmen and the message that God has given them, we are choosing to leave entire areas untouched and wide open to the enemy.  This leaves people in a position to compromise (i.e., “I can do yoga because I’m strong in the Lord and I know Who my God is”).  Has it ever occurred to them that the Bible says that we were made a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5), which indicates that the power that we have over the enemy is ONLY because of the Blood of Jesus?  We cannot expect things to go well for us when we are walking in disobedience while clinging to the Blood as if it is a pass to “do what we want.”  We want to be “grown” and then run and get the Blood off the shelf when we get into trouble.  Do we recognize dabbling in activities of the heathen as sin?  Has it occurred to us that demons have had over 6000 years of experience over us and that we are not more clever than they are?  To think that we are so strong so as not to be “deceivable” while playing in the enemy’s back yard is ludicrous.  The mere fact that we are willing to play these games is a great indication that we have already been deceived.  When we dabble in the devil’s sandbox, his first move is to blind us to truth in order to keep us in a deceived state.  So while we are thinking about how “strong we are in the Lord” we forget that we are weakened by willful sin and therefore give the enemy “legal right” to pull us further into being deceived, losing our ability to rightly divide the Word of Truth concerning our activities; not having the ability to hear when someone tells us the activity is ungodly.  What do you think happened to Solomon?

The Church needs to know why Christians should not participate in Kwanzaa, yoga, holistic medicine, etc., in order that we can be more effective in the work of the Lord.  But when the very people whom God has called to know, understand, and teach these things are stifled, how will the people know? 

The Watchmen are key people in the endeavor to keep the apostasy at a minimum.  But many will fall right into it partially because of this refusal to hear them.  The Bible says the enemy will fool the very elect, if possible.  Is that because of the casting out of the Watchmen?  We say we want all of the parts of the Body to work together, but this is one part of the Body that has not been welcomed.

Let me speak from a personal point of view.  I often times struggle with getting involved because of the way that I see things.  I look at certain movies and I see the destructive plan of the enemy, while others find God in everything.  This doesn’t mean that I’m demon-minded; it simply means that my radar responds in accordance to the signals that the Creator installed in me.  It also doesn’t mean that others are living on a cloud; they just need the piece that has been missing so that they can be made aware. 

For example, when I watched “The Matrix” I clearly saw the teachings of the New Age Movement.  Others said they saw the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  (I felt the heart of the Father insulted at such a thought.)  While God can indeed be found anywhere, it doesn’t mean that He is to be promoted as such, in anything and everything; especially as an encouragement to indulge in something the enemy clearly set up.  I’ve been made to understand the New Age and how it works, so I instantly recognize its teachings.  The problem is this:  people who are not learned in this area will see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a movie because they have not been trained by the Father to readily recognize a trick of the enemy in this area, nor are they usually willing to learn from a Watchman; basically because they don’t want to be told that they may not “know” God the way they thought (when that accusation is not what the Watchman is actually saying to them).

I can’t do a Sermon on worship the way an Evangelist can because I’m not called to know it in the capacity that he does.  I’m not insulted about that.  I’ve learned to stay in my lane while grabbing hold of everything the Evangelist has to teach me.  I try to pull on as much of what he knows as I can so that I can experience God the way he does.  God intends for me to learn through what He put in him.

But let’s be real; we get intimidated at the discomfort of correction, choosing to be insulted as we convince ourselves that the correction is a suggestion that we may not know God the way we think.  When in reality, that’s not the message being presented at all.  The message is really that this is an area that person has been called to and where God speaks to them directly because of their assignment, which the receiver simply has not been called to.  It’s like an English teacher getting mad because a Math teacher tells them they don’t understand an equation correctly.  It’s just their expertise and has nothing to do with the English teacher’s ability to learn; nor does it mean the Math teacher is smarter.

This Call causes discomfort to those who are being “corrected” and is therefore often not recognized as a “Call.”  What makes it so hard is that it is engulfed in everything the called person does and everything they touch.  Like Jeremiah said, it’s like fire shut up in your bones, only your bones are being blanketed by the refusal of others to be warmed by the Fire inside.  You get uncomfortable in settings where people are sitting around talking because you know that at some point in the conversation, someone will say something and that fire will ignite and you will wrestle with whether or not you should say something.

Maturity in this Call can be indicated this way; you will follow the dictates of the Spirit in you and communicate the Father’s heart, knowing full well that you are standing before acceptance or rejection.  But you will not go home and have to apologize to the Lord for not doing what He said, so you say just what He tells you to say.  You share what you know the Father has taught you and you don’t back paddle, even if it means you get called in and reprimanded.  But even with this kind of determination to tell the truth, it is not an easy Call.  It can, at times, be very uncomfortable.  It is even painful in certain situations.  People get mad and turn on you.  People break friendships.  People tend to look at you differently and jump at any chance they get to “punish” you.  And don’t have God tell you to give a word of correction to a Leader… Boy!  You’re really asking for trouble.

People say your gift will make room for you; but what if your gift looks like a curse to the very people you are giving it to?  There's a reason God told Jeremiah not to be afraid of their faces and followed up with Jeremiah being held accountable if he backed off (see Jeremiah 1:16-19).  This indicates strongly that the Church would not readily accept Godly correction.  It also shows the importance God placed on the need for the Watchmen.  The same crazy stuff they did back in Jeremiah's time has been creeping into the Church today.  No wonder this Call takes you through years of rejection, preparing you to go forth with holy determination to save as many from the fire of apostasy as you can; in spite of the looks, the ostracizing, and the pain of rejection.

My Prayer:  Instead of avoiding and shooting the messenger, ask the Lord, “What part of the Body is this, and how do we cultivate it so that it can operate in its full potential?”

There are not very many experiences in the Church that are much harder than having a Call from God that brings you so much rejection.  But we cannot stop being hands and feet in the Body just because the knees of the Body decide to go it alone.  You need us as much as we need you.

This is the outcry of the Watchmen!

Author unknown.  If you know who wrote this article, I would appreciate you emailing me at pastorwise@adams.net so I may contact that person.  Thank you & God's Blessings