Watchmen on the Walls

by Rocky Fleming

Day 1:  Seeing Through Darkness

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest,” (Isaiah 62:6 ESV)

Division or diversion or both.  These are two specialty methods Satan uses to redirect the attention of a ministry, a church, a family, and a man.  Satan’s agenda is to create havoc and to redirect us from God’s leadership to his agenda. He does this by creating divisions in relationships.  If he cannot reach us there, he will divert our attention to things away from God’s agenda for our life, and we find ourselves pursuing meaningless goals that waste our life.

As God’s “watchman” for our family and other areas of responsibility that He has entrusted to us, it is often difficult to sniff out all the threats and respond correctly.  It is tiring to be on alert all the time.  It wears us out, and many times we are discouraged by thinking that we are either giving too little or too much attention to a perceived problem.  Being on alert and overseeing those people or responsibilities that God has entrusted to us is like a watchman in ancient times who stood on the wall of a fortress looking out into the dark of night, hoping to spot a threat as it tries to sneak in.  He has friends and loved-ones asleep below him so he must watch over them and keep them safe.  As he gazes into the night, he sees something that looks threatening.  He asks himself if he is truly seeing something dangerous, or is it a work of his overactive imagination?  

It is his duty to be a guardian of his people, and he is on duty.  A secret insertion of the enemy’s work could wreak havoc on the people he must protect.  Therefore, it is a battle in his mind and his reasoning, and a struggle he must have with reality and with the imaginary.  For a spiritual guardian such as a dad and husband, a minister or pastor, a Christian employer or employee, it is a battlefield in the spiritual realm that he must wake to every day.  We face it every day, and because it is critical that we stay alert, we must also learn to use the spiritual radar God has given to us.  What is that radar I speak of?  I’ll get to that tomorrow.  But first we must understand why we must be vigilant.

I would rather not have this burden of being in constant vigilance over my family, this ministry, my friends, and my own soul.  But that is the burden that leadership requires, and you must make peace that if we are God’s men, we are in some form of leadership even if it is simply watching over our own soul, which is not lesser in importance.  Being a guardian of one’s own soul must take precedence in our guardianship over anything else or we disqualify ourselves from the start.  It starts there.  But it doesn’t end there, for God doesn’t allow it.  

The fact is I believe God is training His men to become “Watchmen” for their family, their church, their pastor, and areas of responsibilities that we have been invited to join God in.  To equip us for this duty, He creates seasoned men who have fought and won battles in their own lives first.  This is the equipping stage.  It is our personal time with Jesus in the Inner Chamber of abiding with Him and overcoming the wounds, prejudices, various hidden lusts, and tendencies of our old man.  This is the place where we learn who we now are in Christ, who He is to us in the most personal way, and what He has made us capable of being and doing when we face the hard to see threats as a guardian.  When we are ready for duty, Jesus then puts us on a “watch station” to be the “watchmen” scripture speaks of.

As we explore this future assignment for many of you, and the present assignment that some of us have, I want to take a deeper look at both the burden and privilege we have been given to be “Watchmen on the Walls” for the people in our lives.  I hope to give you some night vision that helps you see some things more clearly.