Watchmen on the Wall

God is Raising Up 24-7 Prayer Communities Before Jesus Returns (Isaiah 62:6-7)

This teaching (originally recorded in March 2021) explores the biblical concept of watchmen and their role in prayer. In biblical times, watchmen were guards posted on the walls of cities to protect against invaders. In a spiritual sense, according to Isaiah 62:6-7, watchmen are intercessors who pray day and night. This video clip also highlights the global prayer movement happening in the 21st century and its significance in relation to the return of Jesus. The role of watchmen is a calling from God, and a calling that is expressed in community, supporting and praying together “on the wall.”

Key Takeaways

• Watchmen are intercessors who pray day and night, like guards on the walls of a city.

• Watching and praying are closely connected in the Bible, with Jesus and the apostles emphasizing the importance of both.

• There is a historic, global 24-7 prayer movement happening in the 21st century, with communities of believers dedicating significant time to prayer and worship.

• The increase in prayer and the rise of watchmen are signs leading up to the return of Jesus.

Video Transcript

Presence Pioneers (00:00.046)

in these verses that we just read where he's promising that God is going to raise up watchmen who cry out day and night. And so let's talk about this. Who are the watchmen? What are watchmen that are set on the walls? We're going to come back to verse five, but let's look at verse six. I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, they shall never hold their peace day or night. All throughout the Bible, this idea of watchmen is used and it's connected to the idea of prayer.

Now, back in the day, you would have massive cities with city walls. You could walk around and literally on the walls of the city, you would have watchmen posted. They were the guards of the city. And so you had people that were spying out to make sure that there weren't invaders coming in to invade the city and to attack the city. You needed to know if there was somebody coming with a message so that you could open the drawbridge and let people in or out. And so there was this.

picture that they had in their day of the watchman who would stand on the walls. And even through the night while people were sleeping, they had to have the watchman posted on the walls as guards for their city. So Isaiah is using this imagery of those who would stand on the walls of the city and he's comparing it to intercessors. He's comparing it to those people who pray. And he's saying those who pray day and night are like watchman.

on the walls of a city. So this prophetic promise where God says, I have set watchmen on your walls. He's saying, I have raised up intercessors, prophetic intercessors day and night. So you see this comparison continue into the new Testament where you see this connection between the idea of watching and the idea of praying. So when Jesus was in the garden right before he was crucified on the cross, remember he went to the garden with his guys and he asked him to pray and he says in Mark 14,

Verse 38, watch and pray, watch and pray. Ephesians chapter six, verse 18 says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for the saints, being watchful, watchful to the end. So there's this idea in the new Testament that watching, being on alert and prayer,

Presence Pioneers (02:22.51)

are the same idea. Jesus said it, Paul said it, Peter said it in first Peter four seven. He says, but the end of all things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. This is for every believer. The end of all things is at hand. Jesus is going to return. The end is going to come. Therefore pray. Peter saying, use the motivation of the return of Jesus to put us on spiritual alert.

that there needs to be a heightened sense of anticipation and a sober mindedness and an awareness that we don't need to get too caught up and distracted in the things of this world and the things of this culture, but we need to be watching. We need to be tuned in to the things of the spirit. The idea of watching not only means praying, but it means praying by the spirit, praying prophetically. It means that we're discerning of what's going on. We're discerning spiritually of what's happening in our world. We're discerning as we

look at the word of God and we see current events. We're discerning what's going on in our own hearts. So there's this idea of not just praying, sort of going through the motions of prayer, but praying while tuned to the Holy Spirit, being discerning, watchful, listening, and watching to see what God's trying to say, what he's trying to do so that our prayers in our lives are aligned in agreement with what he's wanting to do so that our intercession is in agreement and alignment with his will.

So that's what he's saying. He's saying, I'm going to raise up watchmen. And there are these prophetic intercessors who are tuned to the heart of God and they're in alignment with my will. And they're looking towards the return of Jesus, the culmination of all things. And that's causing them to be watchful and sober and serious in their prayers. And it says that God's going to raise up these prophetic intercessors that are going to cry out day and night. This means 24 seven, clearly.

This was the same phrasing that Jesus used in Luke 18. Will God not bring justice to His elect who cry out day and night? This same language is used here in Isaiah 62. It says, they never hold their peace. It says, they do not keep silent. It says, give God no rest. This is the language that it's used to describe how we are to be praying as the church, how we as the body of Christ are to be crying out day and night.

Presence Pioneers (04:45.006)

Here's what Mike Bickle says. He says, Isaiah gave a most significant prophecy for the end time church. The message is clear in one generation. Jesus will sovereignly initiate new prayer ministries that will be sustained 24 seven until he makes Jerusalem a praise at the end of the earth, at the time of the return of Jesus. So that's what's happening and that's what's going to continue. And that's what we're going to see increased dramatically right before.

The return of Jesus is literal groups of people who are praying day and night together. And we're seeing some expression of that, whether it's the fullness of what Isaiah was seeing in his vision here in Isaiah 62. I don't know, but what I do know is all over the world right now, you may or may not realize this, there is an unprecedented prayer movement in the 21st century and God is raising up communities that are crying out to him. Sometimes it's 10 hours a week or 20 hours a week.

Sometimes it's literally 24 seven. Sometimes it's prayer chains that they're not all in one place, but they're tag teaming every hour to cover the calendar and 24 seven prayer. We've interviewed a lot of people that are doing these kinds of ministries in episodes on this podcast. This prayer movement that's happening right now is in the Bible. It's right there in Isaiah chapter 62. And it says that these ministries are going to be raised up right before.

The return of Jesus. That's what it means when it says, till he makes Jerusalem appraising the earth. That might be a weird kind of phrase for a lot of us, but what he's saying is when Jesus returns to the earth and sits on his throne in Jerusalem and the, and the nations worship him, which is what's going to happen at the end of, end of time, the end of this age, he's saying before that happens, leading up to that time is when these watchmen on the wall are going to begin to appear.

into the earth. This is again, just like what Jesus said in Luke chapter 18 when he says that when the son of man returns, will he find faith on the earth? So he's saying day and night prayer, the return of Jesus, those two things are going to coincide. You're going to see a drastic move of prayer all over the earth. These 24 seven prayer communities, these watchmen on the wall communities leading up to the return of Jesus. Now,

Presence Pioneers (07:12.59)

How do these watchmen get set on the wall? God says, I have set. I have set watchmen on the wall. God is the one who is sovereignly raising up these ministries, who's sovereignly raising up intercessors. He's calling people to the ministry of prayer like never before. For some people that just means an increase in their prayer life. For some people that means be a part of a house of prayer community. For some people that means literally be a full -time vocational prayer missionary.

We've talked about that on some previous episodes on this podcast as well. For some watchmen, they are called to literally give their lives in their vacation and their job to being a part of these 24 seven prayer communities, these day and night worship and prayer communities, these prophetic communities that God is going to raise up before the return of Jesus. And by the way, you can't be a watchman on the wall by yourself because we have to sleep. So if God's going to.

set watchman on the wall. It means he's going to set us in communities. He's going to set us with other worshipers and other intercessors so that we can do this together day and night. Cause none of us can literally pray 24 seven on our own. So God is setting watch on the wall, which means he's calling us to prayer. It also means he's putting us in relationships with one another so that we can together collectively cry out to him in intercession.

day and night. He doesn't want us to do it alone. You can't be a watchman on the wall day and night by yourself. You have to do it in the context of community. So he's inviting us into the place of greater expression of prayer, but he's also inviting us into real relationship with one another, these priestly communities of worship and prayer.