As we continue studying the duties and methods of being watchmen, there are skills we must develop for such an important task that we should all be very serious to know and to do. The skills of a watchman can also magnify everything that we do as they help us to be much more alert and focused on what is happening around us.
The skills of a watchman are not just for use while “on duty” as watchmen, but can release in us a level of perception and awareness that we should have turned on all of the time that can help us in all we do. These are not just for looking defensively for threats, but also looking for such things as opportunities to be used by the Lord to touch others in need.
This being said, we have entered a time when there is a threat of violence in almost every place and at any time. As we go through the training to be an effective watchman and we learn to recognize threats, it will actually allow us to have greater peace and confidence because we are not facing an ambiguous unknown, but know what we’re looking for, and know that we can see it if it appears.
To be well-trained and prepared will allow us to move more quickly into a posture that is proactive, enabling us to engage the situation and gain control over it rather than the other way around. Being passive in a threatened situation will almost always put us in a much more dangerous position. Being engaging and proactive is usually one of the safest things we can do. There are exceptions that we will cover, but this principle is generally true.
Christians should have an advantage in any threatened situation because we should have no fear of death, as we see in Hebrews 2:14-15:
“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
“and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
This states that having no fear of death renders the devil powerless over us. The devil keeps people in bondage by fear, and the fear of death is the ultimate fear and the ultimate yoke of bondage. The degree to which we are free from the fear of death is the degree to which we are free from bondage. It is through faith in the cross and the resurrection that we are freed from this ultimate fear, and thereby every other fear that might control us so that we are controlled instead by the Spirit of God.
The degree to which we still fear death is a barometer that indicates how much we do not believe the gospel or trust God. It is not enough to believe a doctrine if it does not change our life. Those who really believe in the power of the cross, and the promise of the resurrection, will not fear death. When we are freed from the power of this ultimate fear, we can easily get free of every other yoke of bondage.
This is why the apostolic gospel was they “proclaimed Jesus and the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2, 4:33, 17:18). This was the great hope and anchor for their souls that enabled the saints in the early church to be so fearless in the face of threats, persecution, and even death for the sake of His name. They did not just believe in a doctrine of the resurrection, they had true faith that turns doctrines into a reality in our life.
If we have true faith in Jesus, not just a doctrine about Him, we will also have true faith in the resurrection, not just a doctrine about it. Therefore, those who have the true faith will be the most fearless and courageous people of all. If we are not walking in the true faith, and the ultimate courage that it brings, then we must work on that as we work on our watchman skills. In fact, everything that we will seek to do in these times should be ultimately about growing up in every way into Him.
© 2021 Rick Joyner. All Right Reserved.
