I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Habakkuk 2:1. KJV

[excerpts from our discipleship class of Jan wk2 2021..Hopefully it can be beneficial to one or two people. Pls feel free to send any questions you may have or highlight areas you need further clarification]

One clear red flag Jesus instructed His sheep to watch out for in the latter days is the inundation of deceitful spirits, false Christ’s and false prophets showing great signs and wonders in a society deluged with deception. To such an extent that even the saints might get wrapped up in it.
[ref: Matt 24:24, 1 Tim 4:1, 2 Tim 4:3-4,]

Possibly the greatest assurance you can have today is to be able to “commune” with God through His Holy Spirit by His word. By communing we mean: Intimate 2-way dialogue. He speaks-You listen and respond and back and forth. From just our few years of teaching, discipleship and outreaches, its apparent that far too many believers today tend to mostly do the speaking, rarely receiving. Yet this is far less than the privilege that Christ has purchased for us through His death and resurrection on the cross.

We can usually categorize those whom we meet regularly into one of these three categories when it comes to dialoguing with God:

  1. The believer who is likened to Martha. Though inside the house with Jesus, Yet is encumbered with much serving & activities. As a result He/She can only manage to ‘overhear’ bits and pieces of dialogue on the rare occasion they are forced to slow down and come to the Lord.
  2. The believer who is out on the street (the world). He/She has to wait and depend on those who are inside to enquire of the Lord for them, and wait until they return to report/narrate what they have received on their behalf. Their information is always 2nd/3rd hand, and though the door is just as wide open to them as everyone else, They never go in for themselves.
  3. The believer who is not only inside, but ALSO has ‘chosen the good part‘ like Mary by sitting at the feet of the master: listening-hearing-querying & receiving direct responses from God through His word and His Spirit.

What is also true is that many of us tend to fluctuate between these 3 positions from one season to the next.
Yet in these end times it is more critical than ever that we come to a place of stability and consistency with regards to growing in intimacy with God. This is the only way we will be even remotely prepared and effective for our times.

It’s worth noting that as new covenant believers, we not only have better access, we have a more glorious means of communion with God. In the old testament God spoke to them from the outside, but now thanks to Jesus, He is residing within us and speaks directly to us through our spirits, Yet there are lessons we can glean from the posture of certain old covenant faithful which would immensely be of use to those of us seeking to upgrade the quality of our communion with God…assuming you desire more that is?

5 useful lessons from Habakkuk’s posture.

  1. You Must Have a Watch: “I will stand upon my watch“
  • Habakkuk had a post [Place and Time] set apart for communing with God.
  • His post was neither deserted, nor casually maintained. Neither should ours.
  • It was a secret place Matt 6:6 that is hallowed unto the Lord.
  • You should have a fixed time that you set apart for this purpose. Matt 14:25
  • You should keep to this arrangement as diligently as possible. Matt 26:40
  • You must bear in mind John 6:6 and be prepared to do violence to your flesh and its proclivities
    which are most often your biggest roadblocks on laying hold of the Kingdom of Heaven.
  • When you set a watch and are diligent with it, Heaven will also take you seriously and respond accordingly James 4:8 God takes us seriously when we show seriousness toward Him and vice versa!.

2. Your Watch must be Elevated above fleshly concerns: “and set me upon the tower“

  • “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth“.
  • “Stillness” is a fundamental requirement for becoming more intimately familiar with God’s presence and His voice,
  • A distracted heart and mind in the place of prayer does not “exalt” God. If anything it can be insulting!!
  • It is also crucially important to lay down our anxieties and worries at His feet when we pray, but when we wait on Him we should actually let go of them. Worrying and fear can greatly hinder your capacity to receive in the place of prayer.

3. Learn to be Silent before Him: “and will watch to see what he will say unto me,“

  • Prayer isn’t meant to be a monotonous monologue. Rather a rich dialogue with our ‘Abba’
  • We are very guilty of endlessly speaking at GOD without expecting to receive audible answers.
    Some of us are guilty of rushing up after prayer without waiting to ‘See’ if He has anything to say in response.
    This is mostly because the church rarely teaches the proper sequence of communion.
  • Jesus in Mathew 26:41 commands us to “Watch and Pray“
  • Watching involves ‘alertness’ and the ‘preparedness’ of our 5 senses to discern spiritual events, occurences or alerts. (we will deal with the subject of practical ways to ‘watch’ soon)
  • Ability to watch requires the consecration of our minds and senses to discern information in the realm of the spirit.
  • Too often, praying without watching leads to praying amiss, and praying out of point!
  • One practical step to take as as disciple in this area is to set aside a specific time not to speak to GOD but to Listen for Him and listen to Him. We would encourage you to set apart days for receiving feedback from GOD during the week OR an hour during the day EXCLUSIVELY for this purpose.

4. Be diligent with the study of the word: “what He will say unto me“

  • This is an area that is worth repeating and emphasizing continually!!!
  • Jeremiah 1:12 “Then Yahweh said to me, “You have seen well; for I watch over my word to perform it.“
  • Psalm 138:2c …”for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name“.
  • GOD does nothing apart from His word! (Neither does He give words that betray His character).
  • There is simply no way for you to relate properly with GOD without being someone who loves the word and is given to diligent study of the word.
  • The word forms the basic thesaurus of communication between your spirit and God. When you are lacking in the word, there will be severe dysfunction in your communion ability with God by His Spirit.
  • Without the word it is difficult to know the will of God. Without praying according to His will, there is no guarantee you will be heard, neither is there any likelihood of your prayer being “effectual” no matter how “fervent ” it may be.
  • We keep encountering this growing phenomenon of ‘spirit filled people‘ who operate and counsel others with counsel contrary to God’s word and character. People whom upon further probing are quite lacking in the word. Yes its true that GOD calls unworthy and untrained men, but between the call and the choice is the ‘training process’ which is in large part based upon the key tenets of the written word!
    We must be very discerning in these times because we see the propagation of false prophets and teachers operating with familiar spirits being heavily patronized by seeker sensitive believers.
    Yes, GOD still uses men. But the first point of call is to reach out to Him for yourself FIRST!
    [read: How to identify and discern familiar spirit operations]

5. Make a habit of journaling: “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.“

  • God is faithful. He always hears us when we pray according to His will.
  • One really good practice we encourage disciples to do is keep a regular journal of your conversations with God in the place of prayer. Especially as a growing disciple
  • Journaling helps you with “testing what you have heard against scripture”
  • Journaling also helps with testing what you have heard with your discipler and elders as you grow”
  • Journaling helps you keep track of God’s personal instructions and corrective lessons for future reference.
  • Journaling helps you follow up on action points that may arise.
  • Journaling helps you develop a mind of faith that holds God to His word.

Some Questions & Answers

Q. “How do I get rid of the many thoughts that come into my mind when i am praying?“
This is one of the most common questions new disciples ask pertaining to prayer.

Here are 4 Useful Tips to combating distractions during your watch:

i: Psalm 16:8. Engage your imagination. Visualize yourself before the Lord and pray as though you are addressing Him to His face. Consistently do this until the spiritual begins to permeate your physical reality.

ii: The only way to get rid of a thought is to replace it with another thought! Have a verse you’ve been chewing on during the day, and when these distracting thoughts come – just call up that verse and recite it to yourself until you can ‘center your mind’ on Christ again.

iii: Setting the tone of your heart and mind with some worship music before entering into prayer helps.

iv: Our Souls can act as “Echo Chambers”. What you feed yourself on and stimulate your mind with during
the day can often resurface in our minds as ‘noise‘ This is why early hours of the morning are preferable for watch time because your mind is fresher. So we must reduce the stimulation! In this generation in particular we are inundated hourly with latest news/social media/messenger apps etc. Any disciple who must successfully mature in such an overwhelming environment must learn to increasingly opt-out and withdraw from as much of the social media/news/internet frenzy as possible.

Q. “If studying the word is so crucial to hearing properly, what of those who cannot read and write?“

  • We have seen and continue to see practical cases in the villages where many people cannot read and write and as a result even when we give them bibles they cannot engage properly.
  • With people who cannot yet read, there are several factors that would need to be present
    – A genuine heartfelt hunger to know GOD and know His word.
    – An opportunity to hear the word spoken to them by one who can read, or via tapes. etc
  • God is sovereign and we’ve seen Him reach and guide such people by Himself through the place of dreams and other medium until eventually bringing them into a place of understanding the word and being able to read. There was one case where the Holy Spirit taught one sister to read her bible in the place of diligent prayer, and the bible was the first thing she was able to read! it was incredible.
  • In some cases we enroll the people into adult classes to read and write BUT mostly focus on getting them access to the spoken word in their particular language or dialect they can understand.
  • For the rest of us though, we must load up on the word of GOD and meditate therein regularly

SUMMARY

There are many more examples we can reference in the bible as regarding this crucial topic. Nevertheless they all share the same fundamental principles.

They key to all of this is hunger and diligence. Just as in the process of farming, you clear the soil, till the soil, plant and weed continuously till you see results.

There is no special trick or formula. AND God is no respecter of persons. Just as in a marriage relationship, cultivation of intimacy takes TIME. SINCERERITY. DILLIGENCE.

In these coming days that are gradually descending upon us; the quantum of money in your bank account will not save us neither can we rely on church attendance anymore. We must cultivate our personal relationship with GOD to the place of intimacy in our very own closets whilst we still have time to.

May we find mercy and grace as we press in.

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