Word of God Ministry

SUBJECT - THE WATCHMAN IS ASLEEP {1}

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In order for you to get the full impact of the subject scripture, I am going to give you the full passage, so you can fully understand what God is saying, before I expound on it.

Eze 3:18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Eze 3:19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

The first thing I want you to see is, God is charging someone that He has anointed to the position of 'watchman', to do a certain job. That job, is to deliver any message that God gives him, to the people.

However, if you will notice, the message that He is wanting the 'watchman' to deliver, is not one of good tidings, or blessings to come. The message, is in the form of a warning.

The job of any watchman, is essentially to protect those people, or things, that they have been assigned to. That is the only job he has. So, in carrying out that assignment, he is supposed to sound the alarm any time there is the appearance, or possibility of a threat, either directly, or indirectly.

Needless to say, when lives depend on the 'watchman' he must be vigilant, and alert, every moment he is on duty.

When I was in the military, as a security guard, guarding aircraft, munitions, or high security operations personnel, my total focus, was to make sure that nothing happened to any of them.

While the job was easy, the responsibility was great. It was so great, that sleeping on the job, could get me jail time, or, in the time of war, execution.

As God, outlines the duty of the 'watchman', we see that he has one direction, and that is to warn the people. Then God tells him what will happen if either he, the 'watchman', or the people, fail to take the appropriate actions.

If the watchman, fails to warn the people, and they die in their sins, they will pay the price for dying in their sins, but, their blood, will be on the hands of the 'watchman.' On the other hand, if the 'watchman' does his job, and warns the people, and they ignore him, then, if they die in their sins, they will pay the price for it, but, their blood will be on their own hands, not the 'watchman's.'

Now, in all of this, I have neglected to do one thing, and that is, name the 'watchman.'

The 'watchman' goes by different titles, but for the intent of this message, it boils down to one word, and that is, preacher.

The preacher, is the one that God has anointed [called], to deliver His Word to the people [the Church].

Part of that duty, is to deliver messages of good tidings, blessing, and encouragement to God's people. He is to let them know that no matter what they are facing, in the way of problems, God will bring them through to victory, as long as they stay, in right standing with Him.

That is the key, staying in right standing with Him. That means, in order to experience the blessings and promises that God has for His children, they have to be, righteous, in His sight.

The flip side of that is, if they are not experiencing the blessings, and promises God has for His children, then, there is something wrong, and it is not with God.

Therefore, in the case of the latter, it is up to the preacher, to tell them, that they are not in the position they should be in, to receive from God.

Now, I know that some of you will be thinking that I am being a little hard nosed about this, because, many times, those that are righteous, suffer just like the ungodly. In fact, the bible addresses this in several scriptures. Psa 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

Mat 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

In both of these scriptures, one thing is quite evident, and that is, bad things will happen to God's people. However the length, and severity of them, will be minimal, if at all, compared to those that are outside of God's protection. Therefore, it is the job of the preacher, to inquire of God, what the problem is, then, tell the person/people, so that they can take steps to make the necessary changes, to get back in to the 'good graces' of God.

Whether or not we get blessed, depends on the state of our righteousness. And that righteousness, depends on whether or not, we are aware of our condition, and the only way that can happen, is if God lets us know.

Now God, in order to get the message to us, uses His preachers, to do that.

Now, the main thing a watchman needs to do, is be able to recognize a problem, and set about to take the appropriate actions to set things right. This, is the same thing as being able to hear from God.

In a very good example of how things are supposed to work, look at the story found in the book of Joshua chapter 7, when he was faced with a situation, which, for all intents and purposes, showed how God's man, is supposed to be right on the case.

The story centers around Joshua, who, upon seeing the defeat of Israel's army to an enemy that they should have easily beaten.

The fact that they failed, set off the alarm that something was terribly wrong, and he immediately sought God, for the answer. God responded by telling him that Israel had sinned against Him, then told him what they needed to do, to solve the problem. He did what God told him, and Israel, prevailed.

All of this was contingent on three things. The man of God, seeing, and recognizing the problem. The man of God, seeking God. Then, the man of God directing the people on what needed to be done. Of course, if the people refused to follow the man of God's direction, then, that would be on them. However, can you imagine what would have happened if the man of God, didn't follow God's direction??

Point is, obedience is always better than sacrifice [1Sm 15:22]

As mentioned earlier, all things were set in motion by the man of God, recognizing a problem and seeking God.

Today, we have so-called men of God, who, upon seeing a problem, don't seek God for a solution, but rather set about to seek solutions from politicians, scientists, economists, doctors, lawyers, and you name it. They then, take these solutions, and direct the people on what needs to be done. Problem is, they leave God out of the mix, and therefore, they have a disaster, waiting to happen.

One thing is this. They have to be able to see. Most of them are as blind as the proverbial bat. They can't see the problem, or truth, even when it is slapping them right square in the face.

Enter preachers in the black community.

If we look at the problems that face our community, one thing is for sure, we are in a mess. Look at any statistics for what is going good for people, and you will find the black community, at the bottom of the list. By the same token, if you will look at things that are bad for the people, and we rank at the very top of the list.

Ask most of the well known preachers in our community, what the problem is, and they will rattle off a myriad of causes, that all center around one thing, and that is, it is something that we can solve, without God. It usually involves supporting certain politicians, and their party.

What they evidently can't see, is the problems we are facing, are due, in large part to our refusal to seek God for answers, and our support of people, and their ideas, that, for the most part, are the cause of our problems in the first place.

If Joshua, in the story above, hadn't recognized there was a problem, and sought God, rather than forming a politically correct consensus of the problem, where would the children of Israel, have been??

Transfer that to what is happening to us today.

Most of these same preachers, want to be politically correct, and therefore function within the realm of political correctness. Their god, is man, and his education. Whatever man says it is, then that is what it is. Therefore the solution they come up with, is the only one they will accept. Anything outside of that and, it is immediately rejected. What they want to do is protect their god's solutions, rather than seek God's solutions. For all intents and purposes, they are watchmen, that are asleep, because they can't see a problem, even when all the evidence proves it is there.

What is the end result??

Well, if the watchman is asleep, people can get destroyed. They can lose everything they have, and even their lives. All because of a man that passes himself off as a man of God.

The reason I say they are passing themselves off as men of God, is because while they may have the documents, they don't have the main thing, and that is God's anointing.

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