By Christine Darg

Jerusalem Channel

On October 7, Satan exposed his true colors to the world, and the End-time countdown clock is moving faster, closer to midnight. Something was triggered that day; it was as if the proverbial genie was let out of the bottle and demons were unleashed on the entire globe.

Something changed in the spiritual atmosphere. We can’t say the situation only involves the Middle East, it involves all of our nations.

We know the church needs to be taking Israel seriously. The silence of the shepherds—not all of them of course— is shocking because many pulpits won’t even dare to pray publicly for the peace of Jerusalem.

Yet the Jewish people are the key players in the End times. Who are the evangelists during the Tribulation period? Baptists? Anglicans? No, the Book of Revelation clearly teaches that the world will be evangelized by Two Hebraic Witnesses in Jerusalem and 144,000 evangelists from the tribes of Israel!

Once birth pains have started they can’t be stopped, postponed or slowed down. Events will continue to intensify. We don’t just pray, but we have this ministry of watching and praying.

The following 8 bullet points concern the vital ministry of End-time watchmen on the walls.

NUMBER ONE: First of all, we watch the Lord. We ask Him to show us His plans, which are often so different from our own, and He will show us things to come. He will also sometimes uncover Satan’s plans so that through our intercessions we can send a pre-emptive prayer strike into the enemy’s camp.

SECONDLY, From the Biblical examples of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we learn that a watchman accepts the responsibility of warning people and nations of their sins so that the watchman’s hands are free from blood. Ezekiel 33 is foundational. . .

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so give them warning from Me. If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ but you do not speak out to dissuade him from his way, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity, yet I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from it, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.”

I won’t take time to read the whole passage but I advise you to study the first 20 verses of chapter Ezekiel 33 later. To be one of the Lord’s trusted watchmen is one of the highest callings. So the watchman has the awesome responsibility to be free from the blood of sinners. If sinners feel comfortable around us and if we’ve refused to share the Gospel, God will hold us accountable. If we warn them and if they repent, good, and if they refuse to repent, we are not held accountable.

THIRDLY, the watchman watches the fig tree (Israel) and all the trees (nations). Yeshua told the disciples to learn the parable of the fig tree (representing natural Israel). Watchmen guard both the fig tree and the olive tree —the olive tree represents the Commonwealth of Israel, the One New Man of Jews and Gentiles together. Our understanding of the times can only be fully comprehended when we take Israel into account. A person who doesn’t understand God’s purposes for Israel can be deceived into believing that the Church Age will continue indefinitely. But the Church Age has a sell by date, an expiry date, when the full number will be completed and only God knows when the last gentile is saved. That’s known as the fullness of the Gentiles, according to Romans 11: 25, and then God will return to working through Israel.

NUMBER 4. Night vigils are part of the ministry. In Isaiah 21, the Holy Spirit asks twice, “Watchman, what of the night?” in 2 Corinthians 11: 27, the Apostle Paul listed watchings among his spiritual activities. This word watchings in the New Testament literally means sleeplessness!

NUMBER 5—the watchman also functions as a seer. In Isaiah 21: 6-8 the Lord said, ‘Go, post a watchman and have him report what he sees.’ And in Habakkuk 2: 1, the prophet said, “I will stand at my guard post, and station myself on the ramparts, and will watch to see what he will say unto me. . . . To see in this verse is tsapah (Strongs number 6822) meaning to lean forward, to peer into the distance.

Watching is not just a ministry of prayer – it’s a ministry of seeing and looking ahead. It’s a ministry of perceiving God’s whole prophetic program. Like the sons of Issachar, we must understand the perilous times washing over the world. To paraphrase, the prophet Habukkak said, “during my time in my watchtower, the Lord is going to speak to me, He is going to open my eyes to see things.” That’s exactly what happened to the apostle Peter in Acts Chapter 10. Peter went to the rooftop to pray, and he fell into a trance; he saw a vision that to his great astonishment included Gentiles in God’s plan of salvation! Through that one vision of unclean animals, repeated 3 times, the Church’s future was revolutionized. There was a knock on the door. Peter was commanded to accompany three Gentiles to the home of a centurion named Cornelius where he began to preach to them about Messiah. The Holy Spirit fell in that house, and there was a Gentile Pentecost. The church was no longer the “Exclusive Jewish Brethren.” The same visionary gift occurred while the Apostle John was praying on the isle of Patmos. In Revelation 1: 11, John was commanded, “What thou seest, write in a book”– not “What thou hearest,” but “What thou seest”. John said, “ I turned to see the voice.”

The watchman sees prophetic events about to happen. . . . this current outpouring of the Holy Spirit is an outpouring of seeing. Israel will soon become a nation of seers. How do we know? According to Zechariah 12:10, God says, “I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications and they shall what? They shall look upon Me, [that’s the visionary realm] whom they have pierced and mourn for Him.”

NUMBER 6. Now let’s also face the harsh reality that the Watchman Call can be lonely. The ancient watchman was selected for his good eyesight and the ability to endure lonely times of watching for an approaching enemy without any respite. He endured all extremities in weather—hot, searing sun by day and freezing cold temperatures by night. He surely couldn’t sleep on the job; that could amount to disaster!

NUMBER 7. The watchman does not spare the enemy but engages in ruling prayer and fasting to destroy strongholds established by Satan. Psalm 110 is an important Scripture in this regard,

“The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, the day of battle.”

Concerning ruling prayer Amos 3:7 states, “Surely Adonai Yehovah will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” The Lord told me one morning in 1981 to be stay on high alert for Israel. In a surprise airstrike, Israel destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction near Baghdad.

NUMBER 8. Seasoned watchmen are rare. God is pruning and refining us. God didn’t need all of Gideon’s army. Some were too soft and self indulgent. God whittled Gideon’s army down to 300 choice warriors. Sin and a lack of consecration keeps a lot of would-be intercessors out of the fight. 19th century Liverpool bishop J C Ryle wrote these sobering words, “For one [seemingly] small sin, Adam lost Paradise. For one [seemingly] small sin, Saul lost the kingdom. The truth (is) there are no small sins.” These sins can obstruct our fellowship with the Father. Both Elijah and Elisha had a frequent saying, “As the LORD of Hosts liveth, before whom I stand. . . .” Are we able to stand in the Lord’s Presence with a clear conscience? So many times we offend in thought, in word and deed, and we may even need to make restitution. If we don’t, there’s distance between the Lord and us. Let’s learn to approach the Throne with a clear conscience. Great people have been sidelined because they couldn’t bend or forgive. Nevertheless, authoritative watchmen are emerging who have paid the price of obedience in all things.

PRAYER:

May the Lord will give us eye salve to be his watchmen. May He bring us to a greater revelation that we need not only to pray but also to watch! The Lord will anoint our eyes to be an End-time watchman. The warfare will increase and so our time of watching on the ramparts must increase.