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Watchman by What Means?
We have trusted far too long in our current situation within the church. We have stood in the midst of dead saints, preaching dead sermons, singing dead songs, praying dead prayers, all the while pointing our boney fingers at the world, proclaiming that it is dead and in need of life. We are without the Presence of God, marching toward a land of promise perfectly content to enter in without the One Who gave the promise to begin with. Yet there is in the church a group and a number who recognize the need for revival. But to acknowledge something by way of natural cognition is one thing; to judge spiritual things by the Holy Spirit is a wholly different matter. "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God...But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned...But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man" (1Corinthians 2:11-15). There is, therefore, a desperate and incalculable need to see the body of Christ as God sees it, and call on His Name in response to that revelation of the Spirit of God.
But what is the solution to our current condition? Is it another spurious work that tantalizes and titillates the outward senses of men, enabling them to think that by some feeling of a spiritual kind they are thereby safe from judgment to come? Even those who preach the need for revival are unwilling to pay the price that is required for this heaven sent redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His church. "We live in a generation that has never known revival—God's way. True revival changes the moral climate of an area or a nation. Without exception, all true revivals of the past began after years of agonizing, hell-robbing, earth-shaking, heaven-sent intercession. The secret to true revival in our own day is still the same. But where, oh, where, are the intercessors?" (Leonard Ravenhill). This group that acknowledges the deadness of the church has been as the man with a beam in his eye who points out the speck of dust in his neighbor's (see Matthew 7:1-6). This is because the beam has not been considered before he points out the speck. He is a hypocrite of the most tragic sorts. He has been granted the mercy of God by which he can see the dead bones in the valley, but he has not been willing to be brought down by the Spirit of God into the midst of that valley and behold the dryness, the stench, the utter hopelessness of these bones that he has beheld from afar.
"Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psalm 85:4-6).
There is no identification with the heart of Jesus Christ Who alone can prophesy to these bones and bring life once again. The pastor, the teacher, the preacher stands aloof from his own condition, unwilling to be examined before the judgment seat of Christ in this present hour so that there will not be condemnation in the final hour. Oh, how tragic is the condition we are in as the body of Christ! We are intended to be the living, breathing, shining people who walk this earth as the primary means by which God has intended to introduce His Good News to the world. But we are lame, sick, and in many respects altogether dead.
How easy it is to point the finger, but never allow the Holy Spirit to deal with us on the deep issues of our hearts. It is not until we have been brought to the place of utter brokenness before Almighty God, and allowed Him to show us the things that no other man or woman in all creation can show us--the secret pride, the selfish motives, the vain ambitions. Only then will we be able to emerge from the secret place with the holy Christ to speak to an estranged bride of her own need for mercy of which we ourselves are partaking moment by moment. It is all too easy to covet the self-proclaimed title of "watchman" these days. How feignedly demure we have become and smooth in our operations within the church. We can look upon the social ills of nation and church, calling out to a "T" the sins and vitiations of an unholy tribe of people. But do not ask us to fall prostrate before the Living Christ for more than our daily devotional time requires, being examined to "the last aching abyss" of our own hearts by the God of Truth. The truth is, it is an honor to be so loved by God the Father that He will go to those places within our souls and deal with everything that could hinder His relationship with us. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33).
It has, in fact, become fashionable to speak of ourselves as watchmen, because the title allows us to call out the condition of the church and world with a sense of authority, albeit self-imposed authority. Oh how great was the cost for Ezekiel to bear that mark--yes, a mark--as watchman of God! He bore the sins of the people upon himself in identification with God's heart, he watched his wife die, unable to cry or lament her death; he saw the Almighty seated upon the throne of His Glory and collapsed in utter despair for his own life for the Majesty and Great Holiness that he beheld (See Ezekiel 1-4, 24). Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, these men knew the tremendous cost of this high calling of God; and to think how glibly we impose upon ourselves this ostensible title of honor, not realizing the actual horror that is faced by those who are in union with Christ in this most dreadful ministry. But we want nothing of the rejection and sorrow that comes with this rare grace of God. For His watchmen are to be so identified with His heart that He will take but three of His twelve closest followers aside to watch with Him, sharing in His sorrows, His tears, His sweating of blood. "And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me..." (Matthew 26:37-38).
Before Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem in its ultimate visitation from God He wept over the city. This Supreme Son of Man understood the full magnitude of that day of visitation, but with whom could He share that burden of the Father? He is the Root out of dry ground, despised and rejected of men, Who has carried our sorrows and God's all the way to the Cross (See Isaiah 53:1-5). His life on the earth is the paragon of priestly prayer, watching with God, speaking only what is heard from Him (see John 12:44-50).
"The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know [it]: the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. The watchman of Ephraim [was] with my God: [but] the prophet [is] a snare of a fowler in all his ways, [and] hatred in the house of his God" (Hosea 9:7-8). Even in God's own house those whom He has sent to warn of impending judgment have been sneered at, rejected, and wholly discounted as mad men. No wonder, for the Lord Himself was said to be "beside Himself" and insane (Mark 3:21). Most ministers of God's altar are far too comfortable to be hated in His house, because the glory of God has no real place in their lives. If only we knew what God's visitation really meant for the house of God and its inhabitants--how terribly we would tremble for fear of His great Glory! "For the day of vengeance [is] in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come" (Isaiah 63:4). Vengeance and redemption, recompense for sin and for righteousness, go hand-in-hand when God visits His saints.
Prayer...when will we understand that simple yet indispensible aspect of our relationship with God? We cannot separate prayer and intercession from the church and remain the CHURCH. What sort of marriage would it be if the wife ran around doing work for her husband but never communicated with him? What sort of relationship would it be if a son toiled days on end for his father, to build him an house that is absolutely unsuitable for his abode, all because the son refused to confer with the father regarding what would most please him? We are a body severed from the Head. We think that running around in our busyness, doing great exploits for God is what He most desires from us. But we are the most insidious of hypocrites, calling the church to repair and rebuild the altars of prayer, as we neglect that very calling ourselves. "Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin" (Hosea 8:11). The very evidence of our insincere devotion will become the indictment against us on the final Day. All the while, we are daily grieving and spurning His Holy Spirit as He patiently and deliberately calls us back to the Father's footstool to tarry in prayer and silence, listening and crying the intercession of the Great Intercessor, united with His heart in its most secret groanings (see Romans 8:34 & Hebrews 7:25). That "one thing [that] is needful" (Luke 10:42).
"Son of man, do you see...?"
A watchman must see things from no other perspective than from the habitation of holiness with God Almighty Himself. To see as God sees, to see from His perspective, to see things coming from far off--this is what it is to be a watchman of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are countless multitudes who judge by what they see from their own skewed point of view. There are innumerable companies who contend with men by nothing more than what they hear with their natural ears. But this is not what a watchman is, nor what a watchman does. Only after Ezekiel had been carried into the midst of the valley full of dead men's bones, gazing upon the slain with God's mind and with eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, Who lighted him into that valley, could this son of man finally hear with an understanding that would shake heaven itself when he spoke those requisite words in prophetic obedience. "O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD..." (Ezekiel 37:4).
A watchman for what? For what are we watching? From what vantage point do we view the impending danger? From whose perspective do we perceive the current condition of the church and the nation, and speak in reference to that which we see? Such cost, such a great and tremendous price must be paid before we will ever really know what it is to share God's heart and bear His burden in unceasing communion with Him. Perfect union with Christ Jesus the Lord of Glory...there is no other way. And whether He speaks or remains silent, you do only what you are bidden to do, and speak only what you are commanded to speak by the Eternal God of creation. What if the Lord Who created the very heavens and earth into existence by His Word chose to be silent for a time, would you share that deep, incommunicable, piercing silence with Him in intimacy? Or would you run off to call those wretched sinners to repentance one more time, because you see a need, and they are descending into hell by the droves? The need is never the call, the call comes only by One, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to set the trumpet to one's mouth requires first to be commanded to do so by that Son of Man Who is also the Son of God.
There can be no other way than to rest at the feet of God in irrevocable surrender to the Living Christ, watching, waiting, praying, loving, hoping, trusting, crying, travailing. This is the duty...Nay, the delight of a true watchman of God.
But what is the solution to our current condition? Is it another spurious work that tantalizes and titillates the outward senses of men, enabling them to think that by some feeling of a spiritual kind they are thereby safe from judgment to come? Even those who preach the need for revival are unwilling to pay the price that is required for this heaven sent redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His church. "We live in a generation that has never known revival—God's way. True revival changes the moral climate of an area or a nation. Without exception, all true revivals of the past began after years of agonizing, hell-robbing, earth-shaking, heaven-sent intercession. The secret to true revival in our own day is still the same. But where, oh, where, are the intercessors?" (Leonard Ravenhill). This group that acknowledges the deadness of the church has been as the man with a beam in his eye who points out the speck of dust in his neighbor's (see Matthew 7:1-6). This is because the beam has not been considered before he points out the speck. He is a hypocrite of the most tragic sorts. He has been granted the mercy of God by which he can see the dead bones in the valley, but he has not been willing to be brought down by the Spirit of God into the midst of that valley and behold the dryness, the stench, the utter hopelessness of these bones that he has beheld from afar.
"Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psalm 85:4-6).
There is no identification with the heart of Jesus Christ Who alone can prophesy to these bones and bring life once again. The pastor, the teacher, the preacher stands aloof from his own condition, unwilling to be examined before the judgment seat of Christ in this present hour so that there will not be condemnation in the final hour. Oh, how tragic is the condition we are in as the body of Christ! We are intended to be the living, breathing, shining people who walk this earth as the primary means by which God has intended to introduce His Good News to the world. But we are lame, sick, and in many respects altogether dead.
How easy it is to point the finger, but never allow the Holy Spirit to deal with us on the deep issues of our hearts. It is not until we have been brought to the place of utter brokenness before Almighty God, and allowed Him to show us the things that no other man or woman in all creation can show us--the secret pride, the selfish motives, the vain ambitions. Only then will we be able to emerge from the secret place with the holy Christ to speak to an estranged bride of her own need for mercy of which we ourselves are partaking moment by moment. It is all too easy to covet the self-proclaimed title of "watchman" these days. How feignedly demure we have become and smooth in our operations within the church. We can look upon the social ills of nation and church, calling out to a "T" the sins and vitiations of an unholy tribe of people. But do not ask us to fall prostrate before the Living Christ for more than our daily devotional time requires, being examined to "the last aching abyss" of our own hearts by the God of Truth. The truth is, it is an honor to be so loved by God the Father that He will go to those places within our souls and deal with everything that could hinder His relationship with us. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33).
It has, in fact, become fashionable to speak of ourselves as watchmen, because the title allows us to call out the condition of the church and world with a sense of authority, albeit self-imposed authority. Oh how great was the cost for Ezekiel to bear that mark--yes, a mark--as watchman of God! He bore the sins of the people upon himself in identification with God's heart, he watched his wife die, unable to cry or lament her death; he saw the Almighty seated upon the throne of His Glory and collapsed in utter despair for his own life for the Majesty and Great Holiness that he beheld (See Ezekiel 1-4, 24). Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, these men knew the tremendous cost of this high calling of God; and to think how glibly we impose upon ourselves this ostensible title of honor, not realizing the actual horror that is faced by those who are in union with Christ in this most dreadful ministry. But we want nothing of the rejection and sorrow that comes with this rare grace of God. For His watchmen are to be so identified with His heart that He will take but three of His twelve closest followers aside to watch with Him, sharing in His sorrows, His tears, His sweating of blood. "And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me..." (Matthew 26:37-38).
Before Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem in its ultimate visitation from God He wept over the city. This Supreme Son of Man understood the full magnitude of that day of visitation, but with whom could He share that burden of the Father? He is the Root out of dry ground, despised and rejected of men, Who has carried our sorrows and God's all the way to the Cross (See Isaiah 53:1-5). His life on the earth is the paragon of priestly prayer, watching with God, speaking only what is heard from Him (see John 12:44-50).
"The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know [it]: the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. The watchman of Ephraim [was] with my God: [but] the prophet [is] a snare of a fowler in all his ways, [and] hatred in the house of his God" (Hosea 9:7-8). Even in God's own house those whom He has sent to warn of impending judgment have been sneered at, rejected, and wholly discounted as mad men. No wonder, for the Lord Himself was said to be "beside Himself" and insane (Mark 3:21). Most ministers of God's altar are far too comfortable to be hated in His house, because the glory of God has no real place in their lives. If only we knew what God's visitation really meant for the house of God and its inhabitants--how terribly we would tremble for fear of His great Glory! "For the day of vengeance [is] in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come" (Isaiah 63:4). Vengeance and redemption, recompense for sin and for righteousness, go hand-in-hand when God visits His saints.
Prayer...when will we understand that simple yet indispensible aspect of our relationship with God? We cannot separate prayer and intercession from the church and remain the CHURCH. What sort of marriage would it be if the wife ran around doing work for her husband but never communicated with him? What sort of relationship would it be if a son toiled days on end for his father, to build him an house that is absolutely unsuitable for his abode, all because the son refused to confer with the father regarding what would most please him? We are a body severed from the Head. We think that running around in our busyness, doing great exploits for God is what He most desires from us. But we are the most insidious of hypocrites, calling the church to repair and rebuild the altars of prayer, as we neglect that very calling ourselves. "Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin" (Hosea 8:11). The very evidence of our insincere devotion will become the indictment against us on the final Day. All the while, we are daily grieving and spurning His Holy Spirit as He patiently and deliberately calls us back to the Father's footstool to tarry in prayer and silence, listening and crying the intercession of the Great Intercessor, united with His heart in its most secret groanings (see Romans 8:34 & Hebrews 7:25). That "one thing [that] is needful" (Luke 10:42).
"Son of man, do you see...?"
A watchman must see things from no other perspective than from the habitation of holiness with God Almighty Himself. To see as God sees, to see from His perspective, to see things coming from far off--this is what it is to be a watchman of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are countless multitudes who judge by what they see from their own skewed point of view. There are innumerable companies who contend with men by nothing more than what they hear with their natural ears. But this is not what a watchman is, nor what a watchman does. Only after Ezekiel had been carried into the midst of the valley full of dead men's bones, gazing upon the slain with God's mind and with eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, Who lighted him into that valley, could this son of man finally hear with an understanding that would shake heaven itself when he spoke those requisite words in prophetic obedience. "O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD..." (Ezekiel 37:4).
A watchman for what? For what are we watching? From what vantage point do we view the impending danger? From whose perspective do we perceive the current condition of the church and the nation, and speak in reference to that which we see? Such cost, such a great and tremendous price must be paid before we will ever really know what it is to share God's heart and bear His burden in unceasing communion with Him. Perfect union with Christ Jesus the Lord of Glory...there is no other way. And whether He speaks or remains silent, you do only what you are bidden to do, and speak only what you are commanded to speak by the Eternal God of creation. What if the Lord Who created the very heavens and earth into existence by His Word chose to be silent for a time, would you share that deep, incommunicable, piercing silence with Him in intimacy? Or would you run off to call those wretched sinners to repentance one more time, because you see a need, and they are descending into hell by the droves? The need is never the call, the call comes only by One, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to set the trumpet to one's mouth requires first to be commanded to do so by that Son of Man Who is also the Son of God.
There can be no other way than to rest at the feet of God in irrevocable surrender to the Living Christ, watching, waiting, praying, loving, hoping, trusting, crying, travailing. This is the duty...Nay, the delight of a true watchman of God.
posted by Bryan | 5:22 PM
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