by Dave Butts

Most church prayer ministry teams are predominately female. There’s a reason for this. In most situations, women pray more than men. C. Peter Wagner notes that of those who have been identified as being primarily intercessors, about 80% are female. Consider why this is so, remembering that we are dealing in generalities here. Women are typically more compassionate than men, which naturally leads them into praying for others.

Again, generally speaking, women are more spiritually sensitive than men. This awareness that something is happening spiritually brings about prayer. Certainly in many, if not most churches, they have had the example of praying women set before them. Women go to the prayer meeting while the men go work on the building. Stereotype? Yes…but all too often very close to the truth.

What God has perhaps allowed in the past is no longer permitted today. God is calling men to step up to the plate and do their part in prayer. The Lord today is calling ALL of the Church to prayer….both men and women, young and old. Look just at the spiritual warfare aspect of prayer. John Piper writes, "Until we know that life is war, we won’t know what prayer is for." Prayer involves battle against spiritual forces in the heavenlies. Men —how do you feel about sending your mother or wife out to do battle while you sit at home? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing when we have looked at prayer as women’s work? It’s time to take the place of the warrior, alongside the women, as we do battle together in the Lord’s strength and victory as a people of prayer.

Consider also the issue of spiritual leadership in the home. It’s very apparent in Scripture that the Lord expects Christian men to be the spiritual leaders of their homes. Here is a truth though, that is not always understood: spiritual leaders pray! If a man is not praying, he is not a spiritual leader. Prayerless men have abdicated their place of spiritual authority and left their families open to attack. You see, this is not an abstract discussion, but a matter of very practical issues for you and your family.

I believe the place for married men to begin is to develop the habit of praying with their wives. Most Christian men do not do this. Several years ago, Leadership Journal shared how most pastors don’t pray with their wives either. There are always excuses why we don’t, but they remain mere excuses. Couples that pray together are forging strong bonds that will not easily break. A survey was taken that noted just 1 in over a thousand couples who prayed together saw their marriage fall apart. Match that up against the close to 50% figure for all other couples, including Christians.

When my wife, Kim, and I were first married, we made a commitment to pray together. We found that there never seemed to be just the right time of day to do this. We finally decided the only way it was going to work for us was to get up a half an hour earlier in the morning. Our prayer time is precious to us. I hear from Kim about the things that are important to her by just listening to her prayers. She hears me praying over her day and asking God to bless her, as I also hear her pray for me. It is a wonderful time of sharing together before the Lord, and strengthening one another.

There are some days we don’t pray together. The schedule is out of the ordinary, or we’re on a trip, or one of us is especially tired. That’s ok. It’s not a legalistic requirement that we never miss a day of prayer together. Don’t put yourself under condemnation. Praying together is a great gift to give one another. Whether it is in the morning or evening, for 5 minutes, or for an hour, it is vital for Christian couples to learn to pray together.

I believe that God is calling men to lead out in prayer as part of His strategy for retaking planet earth. As men begin to respond in prayer, God begins to move in amazing ways. Dr J. Edwin Orr said it this way, "When God gets ready to do something new with his people, He always sets them praying."

God is doing a new thing today. If you want to be "in" on what God is doing, you must begin praying with greater passion and intensity. If you want purpose and meaning to life, and if you want your life to really count for God and to make a difference in this world…PRAY! Prayer is what God is calling His people to do today as a part of His plan for this world.

God is moving all things toward completion. I don’t pretend to know when. But I do know the key. It is evangelism. And the key to evangelism is prayer. Let me show this to you scripturally.

Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). The gospel is going to be preached to all nations…Jesus said so. Do you want to be a part of the fulfillment of these words?

Jesus ties together prayer and evangelism in Matthew 9:37-38: "The harvest is truly plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Then, in 1 Timothy chapter 2, Paul urges prayers to be lifted up because God wants everyone saved. Again prayer and evangelism are brought together.

There are two passages of Scripture in Revelation that you may not have noticed before that are exciting in their presentation of prayer and evangelism: "Each one has a harp and they are holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8). "Another angel, who had a golden censor, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand" (Revelation 8:3-4).

After each of these incidents, in which the collected prayers of God’s people are poured out before God, angels are loosed upon the earth to cause events intended to bring people to repentance and salvation. God uses the prayers of His people to bring about the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom.

The second passage in Revelation comes in the midst of a half an hour of silence. Author Walter Wink explains the connection well: "Heaven itself falls silent. The heavenly hosts and celestial spheres suspend their ceaseless singing so that the prayers of the saints on earth can be heard. The seven angels of destiny cannot blow the signal of the next times to be until an eighth angel gathers these prayers…and mingles them with incense upon the altar. Silently they rise to the nostrils of God.

"Human beings have intervened in the heavenly liturgy. The uninterrupted flow of consequences is damned for a moment. New alternatives become feasible. The unexpected becomes suddenly possible, because God’s people on earth have invoked heaven, the home of the possibles, and have been heard. What happens next, happens because people prayed. The message is clear: history belongs to the intercessors."

Dick Eastman, of Every Home for Christ, said it this way: "God’s ultimate purpose for mankind, the completion of Christ’s bride and the establishing of His eternal Kingdom on earth will result only from the release of the prayers of God’s saints."

Graham Kendrick and Chris Robinson wrote the hymn, All Heaven Waits. See if their words call to your heart and stir within you a passion to be a man of prayer

"All heaven waits with bated breath for saints on earth to pray,
Majestic angels ready stand with swords of fiery blade.
Astounding power awaits a word from God’s resplendent throne.
But God awaits our prayer of faith that cries, "Your will be done!"

By Dave Butts

My favorite Bible story is found in 2 Kings 6. It is the story of the prophet Elisha and his involvement in the war between Israel and the Arameans. The king of the Arameans had declared war against Israel, which wasn’t a good thing for Israel with its smaller army. The Aramean king called his generals together and gave them the battle plans for the attack on Israel. The one thing that the king hadn’t planned on was that God was listening to the strategy as well. He told Elisha the enemy plans, who then immediately passed the information on to the King of Israel. With his much smaller army, the Israelite king simply moved his army out of the way and avoided defeat.

After a couple of fiascoes like this, the king of the Arameans became suspicious. He called his generals in and demanded to know who was leaking information to the Israelites. His generals explained that it wasn’t any of them, but the prophet Elisha who had revealed the plans. They explained to the king that Elisha knew everything that went on, even the things in the king’s own bedchamber.

Upset over this information, the king began to make plans to take care of the prophet who was interfering in his attempts at conquest. The king’s new strategy was really simple. Go after one man…. Elisha! In 2 Kings chapter six, the story continues with Elisha and his young servant in the little village of Dothan. We can imagine what it must have been like that morning. The servant got up first, as was his custom, to go outside and prepare breakfast for his master. As he walked outside he looked in terror about him, as he saw the entire army of the Arameans surrounding the tiny village. He rushed back in and woke up the prophet. Can’t you see Elisha walking outside the hut, muttering and rubbing the sleep from his eyes? The first words out of his mouth were amazing, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." His young servant had to be thinking, "Wait a minute. There are just two of us. Prophets must be lousy mathematicians."

Then Elisha began to pray. What is astonishing in his prayer is what he didn’t pray. He didn’t begin to panic by praying, "Oh Lord, save us from this army." Instead, there was this calm, yet amazing request: "Lord, open this young man’s eyes." I believe the implied meaning was, "Lord, open this young man’s eyes so that he can see what is already there."

Elisha’s prayer was answered immediately as his servant’s eyes were opened and he saw there, surrounding the army of the Arameans, the army of heaven --a host of angels, decked out in battle armor, ready to move at God’s command.

I’ll let you read the conclusion of the story on your own. It has a fascinating finish. The point of the story for our purposes is that Elisha did not ask God to send angels. With his prophet’s discernment he saw or sensed their presence. His prayer was for his young servant, that he too, would be able to know of the protective presence of God’s angels on their behalf.

The Bible teaches, from beginning to end, of the existence of the invisible world, the world of the spirit. A world of angels and demons, yet a world that we touch daily as those who have been given not merely a body, but a spirit. This invisible world is difficult to believe in for many of us today. We tend to focus on that which our senses tell us is real. Things we can touch, taste, smell, hear, or see are real to us. An invisible world of the spirit seems a bit unreal or mystical.

One of the things I love about the way God’s Word presents the things of the spirit, is the way it stays away from the mystical or unreal. It presents the unseen world as simply a matter-of-fact. There are things that are seen; there are things that are unseen. Both are real. One is not more real than the other. The invisible world is not a matter of myth but of solid, well-grounded reality.

Jesus had a firm grasp of this reality. He was aware of and interacted with this invisible world on a regular basis. After His baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days of prayer and fasting. During this time He encountered the Devil and was faced with a time of temptation. The battle is not presented with a flourish as if to say, "This was a unique, once-for-all battle reserved only for the Son of God." Instead, it almost seems as though it is a model of what may happen to any believer who makes a decision to follow at all costs, the direction of God. At any rate, the battle in the wilderness was not waged with miraculous signs, but with a clear-headed use of the Word of God to counter the suggestions of the Enemy.

As Jesus moved through His years of ministry in His earthly body, He encountered the invisible realm a number of times. There was the time He was preparing to go to Jerusalem and Peter spoke up against the trip. Jesus turned to him, and we can almost see Him pointing His finger in Peter’s direction as He said, "Get behind Me Satan."

How unnerving that must have been for Simon Peter! I don’t believe Jesus was calling Peter, "Satan," but rather was responding to Satan himself. Jesus understood how Satan could put words into the mouths of others, like Peter, and simply went to the root of the problem with His rebuke. By the way, if Satan could put his thoughts into the mind of the Apostle Peter, do you suppose he can do the same to us? I’m convinced that one of the major reasons for the many commands given in Scriptures regarding watching what we say, is the possibility that our words, unchecked, may contain the thoughts of the Enemy.

There is another encounter with the unseen world that gives great insight into Jesus’ beliefs concerning the role of the Enemy in human affairs. It concerned a healing of a woman who had experienced a crippling for 18 years. She was so bent over that she couldn’t stand up straight. Jesus healed her on the Sabbath. In response to His critics, He said, "Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

Jesus believed and taught that, at least some illness can be caused by the Enemy. He did not teach that all illness is from Satan, but that some may find its source in the spirit world.

Have you ever noticed, as you read the Gospels, how many times demons manifest themselves in the midst of Jesus’ times of teaching? Jesus gave us a great model for dealing with the demonic. He interrupted His teaching just long enough to get rid of the distraction, then turned immediately back to His teaching. His focus was not on the kingdom of darkness, but on God’s Kingdom. Jesus did not have a deliverance ministry, in the sense that He went out looking for demons to cast out of people. He went about proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven. When a demon had the audacity to interrupt, Jesus dealt decisively with it.

The Apostle Paul continued the attitude of his Master toward the invisible world. He clearly saw Satan as a real, created being, who was scheming against God and those who followed the ways of God. In 2 Corinthians 2:10-11, Paul spoke of the importance of forgiveness, "in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes." Later in 2 Corinthians he spoke of the god of this age (a clear reference to Satan) who is blinding the minds of unbelievers. In 1 Timothy 4:1, Paul warned us that in later times (ours?) some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

It is Paul who began to develop a military terminology for this spiritual conflict. He referred to Christians as soldiers. He told us that we do not wage war as this world does, but rather we use spiritual weapons. Then in Ephesians 6:10-18, he gave us this great treatise on spiritual warfare with special emphasis on putting on the armor of God.

Not to be left out, the Apostle Peter added his teaching concerning the battle in 1 Peter 5:8-9: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him….". In his second letter, he wrote of angels who sinned, whom God sent to hell to be held for judgment (2 Pet.2:4). In his short letter, Jude also spoke of these fallen angels, and gave us the amazing story of how the archangel Michael got into a dispute with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 9).

It’s obvious the New Testament authors took spiritual warfare seriously. We ignore it to our detriment and danger. Certainly some may go too far in their practice of this doctrine. We often hear reference to some Christian teacher who sees a demon behind every bush. I doubt demons are much interested in bushes, but the point is well taken. If we are not careful, we can end up focusing more on the devil than Jesus. But much of the Church in the last century has taken the opposite tactic of simply ignoring or denying the devil.

There is however, a growing awareness today in the Church that our battle is real and against that ages-old Enemy whom the saints have always faced. The good news of the Bible is that our victory is sure and is based on the victory of Jesus over the enemy at the Cross and the empty tomb. Our job in prayer is to walk in that victory, putting on the armor of God, and watchfully praying for God’s Kingdom to triumph in our day.

By Dave Butts

Revival comes to those who are desperate for it. Many today are talking about spiritual awakening and even beginning to pray about it. But have we allowed God to place within us the burden necessary to pray desperately for God to show up in our midst? Are we willing to "pray the price" to see God move in a powerful way in the Church today? As I continue to learn how to move my prayers into alignment with God’s will, praying Scripture has become increasingly important. As I pray God’s Word I find myself praying in ways I would never have found myself praying before. So it is as we begin to place ourselves before the Lord in asking for a burden for revival. I have been greatly impacted by the prayer of the Psalmist in Psalm 79.

This is a powerful prayer for revival. It was prayed from a broken heart that saw the people of God under attack and the promises of God unfulfilled.

O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble. They have given the bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead. We are objects of reproach to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us. How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his homeland. Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake. Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured of your servants. May the groans of the prisoners come before you; by the strength of your arm preserve those condemned to die. Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord. Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Praying through Psalm 79 is a great way to develop a biblical burden for revival. The text breaks down into a great outline for passionate prayer:

1. Recognizing your current situation is a critical place to begin. The people of Israel were oppressed…under attack by their enemies. They finally got to a place of desperation-- "for we are in desperate need" vs.8. Until the Church today arrives at that place of desperation, we will never develop a burden for revival.

2. Get serious about the glory of God. Pagans were disparaging God because of the sorry situation of the Israelites. "Where is their God?" they asked. The fact that the world would ask such a question should bring great grief to God’s people. In a very real sense, this is exactly what the world is saying of the Church today….."Where is your God?"

3. Recognition of your current situation and passion for God’s glory will lead you to petition. It is at this point that you find Israel praying for mercy, deliverance, and forgiveness. It is a very personal sort of prayer that focuses on the needs of the people of God for restoration into the favor of God.

4. Taking the prayer a step further, we see the Psalmist asking God to step into the situation. In a very real sense, the Psalmist prays, "God, You answer the accusations of the enemy. By Your actions Lord, pay back the reproach that the world has heaped upon You through the sad condition of Your people."

5. The result of such a prayer is worship and praise. It’s the natural result of seeing God work. Even before full-blown revival arrives, there is worship erupting from the people of God. And along with that is the commitment to pass it on to the next generation.

Praying such a prayer for revival is not a guarantee of revival. It is merely preparing the ground of the human heart for a fresh work of God. Praying with passion for revival begins to create a burden for revival among the Lord’s people. And into such a prepared state, the Lord has often poured His rain from heaven.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaks of this preparatory work of prayer in his book, Revival: "Our essential trouble is that we are content with a very superficial and preliminary knowledge of God, His being, His cause….we spend our lives in busy activism….instead of realizing our own failure,(that) we are not attracting anybody to Christ and that they probably see nothing in us that makes them desire to come to Him.

"The inevitable and constant preliminary to revival has always been in a thirst for God, a thirst, a living thirst for a knowledge of the living God and a longing and a burning desire to see Him acting, manifesting Himself and His power, rising and scattering His enemies…..the thirst for God and the longing for the exhibition of His glory are the essential preliminaries to revival" (pages 90-91).

May our prayers for revival develop a great thirst for God, not only in our own lives, but in the lives of those around us.

A New Call For Extraordinary Prayer
By Dave Butts

With all that has been happening in our nation, it eventually becomes very easy to allow our attention to be diverted back to what we call "normal." Unfortunately, "normal" often means life without God and without a dependence upon Him in prayer. I believe it is vital for us to hold on to our first response - - the response of prayer.

The Church desperately needs to both issue and respond to a new call for extraordinary prayer. Extraordinary prayer goes beyond the normal expectations of the past. It is prayer that can bring God’s power to bear on a whole new world facing us--a world of uncertainty, fear and war.

The Bible records times of extraordinary prayer like this. One good example occurred in the Book of Esther. The crisis there concerned the lives of every Jew held captive in Babylon. A decree had been issued that would result in genocide for the Jews. Queen Esther was going to risk her life by going to the King on behalf of her people; however, before she went, she called her people to three days of prayer and fasting for her mission. Extraordinary prayer brought about extraordinary deliverance.

The Book of Ezra gives another good example of extraordinary prayer. Ezra was preparing to lead a group of the exiles back from Babylon to Jerusalem. The king had even offered troops for protection on the perilous journey. But Ezra had refused the troops, pointing out that God Himself would protect them. As the people gathered, Ezra began to realize how dangerous the trip would be and that they should not merely presume upon God’s protection. So he called the people to humble themselves and pray and fast over the journey. God heard their prayers and gave them safe passage to their destination.

There are many examples of this in more recent history. The great British preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, was used by God to bring many into the Kingdom and in the process, a large church was built in London. He challenged his people to extraordinary prayer if they wanted to see God’s hand at work in their church. He wrote, "Dear Friends, we do not know what God may do for us if we do but pray for a blessing of the Holy Spirit… Have we not tried to preach without trying to pray? Is it not likely that the church has been putting forth its preaching hand but not its praying hand? O Dear friends! Let us agonize in prayer, and it shall come to pass that this Music Hall shall witness the sighs and groans of the penitent and the songs of the converted. It shall yet happen that this vast host shall not come and go as now it does, but little the better; but men shall go out of this hall praising God and saying--It was good to be there; it was none other than the house of God, and the very gate of heaven. This much to stir you up to prayer."

In the United States, the revivals known as the Great Awakenings came in response to Christians gathering for extraordinary prayer. Often called "Concerts of Prayer," God used these times of prayer to bring awakening to His people. Robert Bakke in his wonderful book, The Power of Extraordinary Prayer writes, "It (the Concert of Prayer) was born out of convictions that say with certainty that, regardless of how bright or dark the hour we live in, God is about to do something greater than He’s ever done before. Furthermore, it said that God would not move forward with His ever-increasing and ever more marvelous plans until Christians agreed with Him and agreed with each other about what He was going to do. A great and lucid vision of Christ’s earthly reign was before their eyes--with every nation, people, tribe and tongue united as one company before the throne of God, Christ the Son, and the sevenfold Spirit. It was a compelling vision that would not let Christians rest or let go of God until the rule of God held sway in every aspect of life." (Pg.133)

Read again that last sentence from Bakke: "It was a compelling vision that would not let Christians rest or let go of God until the rule of God held sway in every aspect of life." Have you ever made a decision to pray like that? Not merely God bless us or even God protect us--but a life-changing commitment to pray until the "rule of God held sway in every aspect of life"? This should not just be a response made only by individual Christians. Has your church made a decision to pray extraordinarily for the working of God’s power? The key to the Concert of Prayer was for Christians to gather together for times of extraordinary prayer--as was the practice of the early Church.

We are living in times that are not "normal." What has been normal for us in our prayer life and experience of Christianity will not suffice for this hour. God is calling us to extraordinary prayer! How will you respond?

By Dave Butts

“I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak’” (Matthew 26:40-41).

A Watchman’s Story
The young watchman stood silently at his post on the wall. The cool Judean night caused an involuntary shiver. It had been a quiet evening…a few latecomers were allowed through the pedestrian gate, but nothing else. It was almost time for his shift to end when his eyes caught a glimpse of something glowing over the nearest hill to the north. Peering into the darkness confirmed that something was amiss not too far from the city. It could be a movement of enemy troops with their torches betraying their position. Of course, it could just be the campfire of travelers…but why now in the middle of the night?
Whatever it was, the young watchman’s orders were clear…he was to sound the alarm. Raising the trumpet to his lips, he sounded the three short blasts that would bring his superiors to the wall. Within minutes, the quiet sentry post was filled with soldiers. An armed scouting party was sent to the general area of the fire. The glow from beyond the hill died down and soon the soldiers returned. A shepherd’s hut had caught fire when a gust of wind blown across the sleeping shepherd’s coals had ignited the thatch.
Though the fire was not a danger to the city, the watchman was commended by his commanding officer for his sharp eyes. It could easily have been a threat that would have been stopped by the watchful eyes of the young man. This was the very reason why the watchmen were in place.

Watchmen of Today
There is a movement of prayer taking place all over the planet that is firmly rooted in Scripture. It is the call of God to His people to take their places on the wall as watchmen. Whether we look to the Old Testament or New, we find that God is calling us to watch and pray.
Our modern culture does not readily identify with the ancient concept of watchmen on the walls. To accept the Lord’s call to this great movement of prayer then, we will need to train ourselves in what it means to be a part of this great company of the “alert.” The Isaiah 62 passage, quoted above, helps us greatly in this task.
It is clear that the job of a watchman is a continual commitment. It is not sporadic or dependent upon our feelings. Because of the life or death nature and constancy of the watchman’s task, it is an assignment for the many, not just the one. Believers working in tandem, sharing shifts of prayer, will be the most effective. Isaiah 62:6-7 describes an intensity that must be shared…day and night…never silent…give yourself no rest. Only groups of committed believers who band together in watchful prayer will be able to stay at their post.
Notice also in Scripture that it is God who posts the watchmen. This is a divine assignment, not just the latest prayer fad. To stand on the wall as a watchman, stationed there by the Lord Himself, is a great privilege. We need to receive and obey such a call with gratitude and humility.
Perhaps the overwhelming characteristic of watchman prayer is that it is to be done with open eyes. This does not necessarily imply physical eyes, although it certainly can, but our spiritual eyes must be held wide open. We are to watch and pray.
What is it we are looking for as we pray? I would suggest that we first look for an enemy attack. Certainly in Old Testament times, this sort of defensive watchfulness was at the heart of the task. The watchman on the wall was always on the alert for any attempt of an enemy to attack or infiltrate the city. Too many times, the walls of the Church and of our cities today are open to attack because of a lack of watchfulness. In 2 Corinthians 2:11, Paul wrote that we are “not unaware” of the schemes of the enemy. Unless praying watchmen are on duty, we too often find ourselves painfully unaware of the attempts of the enemy to disrupt and destroy.
On the opposite end of matters, I believe that the watchmen are also to keep their eyes open to see and discern moves of God. All too often we miss out on what God is doing because we are not paying attention. The watcher should always be asking, “Lord, what are You doing in our church or city this day? Is there something You are calling you people to do in cooperation with what You are doing?” How much more effective we would be if, instead of starting our own projects for God, we found ourselves moving alongside a current move of God!
The other area for watchfulness is discerning the needs of the people of God. A watchman on the wall in the Old Testament would often see human needs and be able to send someone to meet those needs. Is there someone among you who is prayerfully watching the people of God to see who is hurting or who is in need? We often talk about shepherding the flock of God. What greater way to shepherd than to continually watch in prayer over the sheep the Lord loves?
What will be the results of watchmen prayers? According to Isaiah, we will see the firm establishment of the Kingdom of God. The prophet speaks of the establishment of Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God among His people. In both Old and New Covenant, Jerusalem represents God among man. Jesus’ main message was the coming kingdom, present in Him. Emmanuel…God with us!
Another result of this powerful prayer movement will be that the glory of God will be seen among the nations. In the Matthew passage above, Jesus wanted the disciples to watch with him and to pray for Him. How do we do that today? Have you ever asked the question, “Lord, how can I pray for You today?” I decided to try that in my own prayer life. I started praying for Him…feeling pretty inadequate and a bit foolish. I began to bless Him, agreeing with many passages in the Psalms to “bless the Lord.” As I continued to do that it began to emerge as prayer for His glory to be seen on the planet that has rejected Him. I began to sense that I was now praying for and about something that was close to His heart. As we watch and pray, we find ourselves lining up with the prophet Habakkuk and crying out “for the glory of God to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). Prayer warriors, it is time to ascend the wall of your city and begin to fulfill your calling as a watchman of God.