#162 Watchmen on the Wall (1 - Finding Your Post on the Wall)

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A nationwide call for spiritual awakening. The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports. Welcome once again to the One Cry Podcast. I'm Bill Eliff, and with me is the golden voice of Kyle Reno. Never been called that. Yeah, and we're so glad that you, joined us today. I'm really excited about what God has for us today, Kyle. And, you know, I don't know you know this.

I know you were a real athlete. You were a baseball player, and I think you played everything, and you did it all well. I was an extraordinary basketball player in the ninth grade. I kind of peaked right there. That was kind of the end of it. You're self-aware. You're very self-aware. Very self-aware. I was just eternally, you know, some guys who get stuck in high school and they never go beyond.

I was kind of athletically, I was just kind of stuck there and I went into the 10th grade and I played basketball, but I just didn't fill the spot real well. You know, he lost something. He lost something. Yeah. And then, and then suddenly they looked and lightning Billy was gone from his post. I just, it just wasn't there. And you know, we all have places that we need to fill and it's important to fill. And, and, uh, I know you're You're going to talk about that today.

Yeah. Oh, man, my heart is soaring with faith in light of just some things God's been reminding me of. And I believe spoke to me recently against some holy ground. And, you know, this bill been walking with me for years. Some holy ground chapters of the Bible to me, Isaiah 58 through 62. Man, they mean a lot to me. And obviously, I know we're not Israel, and I know there's some specific parts that are for them then and to come. And I think what it shows us in those chapters, though.

Is this God that longs to renew, this God that had promises of renewal for Israel, and that God is always about the restorative work of His people. I mean, you see even rebuilding specific places, and that God has things in His heart for places and people, eras of time, and some of those things in Isaiah 58 through 62 would come true in the life of that nation. Some of those will come true one day. Some of those things are going to come true when Christ comes and makes all things new, baby.

I mean, I love that about those chapters. But man, there's this one place in Isaiah 62 where I feel like, and often, you know this, oftentimes in the Old Testament, I feel like God gives us physical pictures to help reveal spiritual truths. And in Isaiah 62 verses 6 through 7, I think God gives us a physical picture painting a spiritual truth about prayer and how prayer works and how each person that is a part of the faith community gets to be a part of the work of prayer.

So I'm going to read these two verses. In the next couple of weeks, we're going to sort of tease this out. And what I pray happens is that each one of of us see prayer in a way that moves us to pray our part. That's what it says in verse 6. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen. All the day and all the night. They shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.

And there's a lot of truth here to unpack, but I want you to grab hold of it. Contextually, this is all about prayer. This is all about the way that God sees how prayer works in the life of a nation, in the life of a person that's a part of a people of faith. So go back to verse 6. It says, own your walls, O Jerusalem. Now, in that era of time, walls were very important.

They were important. They helped establish the boundaries of cities, that if you're going to be a culture that really flourished and would have economy and commerce and that you would be and fulfill all you intended to as a city. Walls were important. Walls were protective. Walls established boundaries. Walls gave a visible representation that you had been solidified as a people and a place.

On those walls, oftentimes the city would place watchmen, cities that wanted to be aware of any advance of the enemy, like someone that has eyes toward the horizon. And we'll talk about this more in the role of a watchman in one of the future episodes. But that's looking out for any advance, man, any inkling of an enemy coming their way. But they'd also could be able to see the flourishing of the city or anything that might bring a hindrance to it.

So let me bring that physical picture back to us and tell you a spiritual truth. That when God sees cities... That when God sees nations and when God sees families, that he has specifically placed, this is what he says, I have set watchmen. You know, verse 6 and 7 is going to paint this picture of people that are never silent, that put the Lord to remembrance, that keep praying night and day until he establishes Jerusalem, makes it a praise in the earth.

But until we get to all that outworking, you first have to believe this design of God. That God says, O Jerusalem, on your walls I have set watchmen. I have set men, and specifically in that, and I would speak to the hearts of men, but for us as the followers of Christ, I've set men and women in different posts to pray.

That there is things that God desires to do in families, that God desires to do in churches, that God desires to do in cities, that God desires to do in our nation that only come about as each person believes rightly and then shows up and stands to attention in their post in prayer. So here's just a statement that I hope you believe. Everyone has a post to pray.

Everyone has a post in prayer, meaning everyone that has been saved by Christ, got to get this, has been placed by God to pray prayers only they can pray. That's a huge statement. Everyone that has been saved by Christ, like the moment you walked into the kingdom of God, that you were made new, that you were made alive, many things happened.

You were adopted opted into the family of God, and inheritance became yours, man, that your eternity was secure, man, so many implications to the moment you were born again, but something happened that I don't think many of us believe rightly, is that the moment you were also saved, you were placed, by God on a post to pray prayers only you can pray, that when God looked over the sovereign landscape of the earth and our age and when

you live and where you live God said I'm gonna put you sir you ma'am in at this place to pray prayers only you can pray you have a strategic vantage point in prayer that no other person has. Like, I think a lot of times when we think about prayer, we think about the elite few. I think even our language around an intercessor, which I praise God, I'm praying for intercessors and people that have gifts and passions to build up and tear down and that God uses in powerful ways in prayer.

But I think sometimes our thoughts around that makes that this, just this remnant, this few, this elite. But in reality, is every person that has been saved by Christ has been placed by God to pray prayers only they can pray. Meaning this, it truly matters. And this is a statement that I feel like God put it in my spirit. It truly matters how many of us are praying.

It truly matters how many of us are praying. It truly matters in your church how many of you are praying, because each one has an assignment by God in prayer. Each person has a post, and this is true. If you skip your shift on the wall of prayer, if you don't stand your post, we all suffer.

That any time a person that is a follower of Christ doesn't recognize in each season of their life that the God of the universe has specifically placed them to pray for their family, for their city, for their street, for their workplace, for their church, for this nation. When we don't see and assume that position, it pains the work of God. No one else can pray your prayers. I'd speak to the men for a moment. Man, I just preached this message on Father's Day at our church.

I don't know that there's a more strategic ploy of the enemy than to convince men that prayer is something that women do more naturally. And there's a reality to some of that, that women relationally connect with God. Many times women are more conversational, more wordy, you might say, in ways that God made them. They have a bigger word bank at times. But I think one of the greatest lies of the enemy is to rob men of their role in prayer.

And I just, the heart-to-heart moment to the men that are listening to this podcast, nobody can stand your post in prayer. Dad, nobody can pray from your vantage point with the authority that God has given you, like you. Men of the church, nobody can pray the post God has sovereignly placed you in. I don't care if you're a door holder or a deacon or the senior pastor. Every person's got a post.

Every person's got a vantage point and a way of advancing God's kingdom through prayer from right there. Our hope is that truths like this help you to rightly believe, because you've got to rightly believe before you'll live, to rightly believe this is true. If you believe it, then you can live into it. Ian Bounds said something that shook me years ago, and it's just stuck, keeps coming back up. It says, what the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more

and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use. Men of prayer. Men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. It is not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer. I sense the Spirit even today. And Bill, I'd love to talk about this for a minute. I sense the Lord even in our day is that God is doing something fresh in the lives of men specifically.

And I think, man, if God would allow us by his spirit's power to rightly understand the role of prayer and the post that each person has in prayer, can you imagine what would happen if from the wall that God has placed you on, if a continual cry came up from post to post, man, person to person that covered our cities, that covered our churches, that covered our nation. That would be the foundational move toward a move of God.

Amen. And it always is. You know, you see these extraordinary movements that happen and you can always trace it back. You say, well, God did that. And he did. And there's no explanation in one sense, but God's grace and his sovereignty, but also he uses people. And there are things he won't do if we don't pray. I mean, you have not because you ask not, right? So this is, boy, this is sobering, Kyle.

I mean, it's exciting on one side because it says to me as a Christian, but also as a man, as a husband, as a father, man, there's stuff that I can do that's going to make a difference. But it's also very convicting about what has not happened because I hadn't been at my post or what won't happen if I don't get into my post and do the work of prayer that I need to do. Yeah. I mean, the collective, I'm just thinking about our listeners and the churches that are represented.

And this is stuck in my spirit as I was really thinking about like the collective cry matters, like that people, that it truly matters how many of us are praying. I get that each person needs to pray much. But and I know God can use the prayer of one. Like I understand all that. But in light of God's sovereign plan, it truly matters how many of us are praying because each of us have a strategic part. Like God, to think that God sovereignly placed me to pray is an awesome thought.

You know, there's a reason why about a dozen years ago, as we were beginning this. This ministry that this podcast is coming out of that we named it one cry because we felt like that if we could help mobilize in some small way, help mobilize the church and resource the church all across America to understand the need and the means to cry out to God with humble, repentant prayer, that God hears the prayers of a united cry. And what you said is that I've never heard it said that way.

God, it matters how many people pray. Not just that we pray, but how many people pray. Well, that's sobering. And I know, you know, Kyle, with that said, how do we mobilize more people? I mean, as the listener out there who's hearing this, what would be a couple of things? I'm thinking of some in my own mind that we could say to them, here's how you can go mobilize more people.

Yeah, it's starting with me. and we're going to come back and I'm going to talk about how to pray like a watchman next week and then maybe one more week to talk about the establishing of God's kingdom through this. But I think today it starts, Bill, I learned. I mean this from you. You sort of rightly said that, you know, and it goes back to the Bible, you know, that everything's impossible apart from faith. So you have to you have to first rightly believe this.

Like, I think to fan the flame of faith around this, like, man, to have faith in what God decided to do through prayer and to look. And for me, it was looking into that this last week, even teaching this, was looking into the eyes of my men specifically and saying every prayer from every man matters. Every prayer from every man matters. And when you don't pray, it's painful to us. It hurts. It hurts the desire and design of God, what he wants to bring to fruition.

So please believe that your prayers matter. Believe that your post matters. I think a lot of times we, from our vantage point, what we're really doing and we don't realize is that we're standing where God has placed us in time, in space right now. And we're looking at somebody else's post going, man, that's the one that matters. That dude matters. He's really making a difference. When God is going, you're on the same wall.

You're on the same wall. you're in the same work. So his role is no more important. So I think to start was for you personally, but also to look into the eyes of your people with that faith going, man, like you just don't know how much your prayers matter. You don't know how much and what God's doing here. Could I lead us in prayer for that right now? Yeah. And we'd like to ask everybody to join us in prayer. And I wonder if you just bow, if you're able.

And I wonder if we could begin this moment of prayer with a confession. If you're not manning your post, would you own up to that and just get honest about it? I'm not manning my post.

And I ask for the Lord's cleansing for that and forgiveness. Maybe that you need to go to your family. I'm not saying you have to, but I'm just saying the Lord may prompt you if you realize, man, I haven't manned the post in my home. And that's my first church. That's my first responsibility. Responsibility, and you need to say, hey, kids, to your wife, I've just not done what I should have done.

I need you to forgive me, and I need you to pray for me that I will man this post, and so just ask for the Lord's forgiveness, and then would you pray for courage? Oh lord give me courage you know in a in a battle it takes courage it takes courage when it's just the mundane routine staying by the stuff every day and it takes courage in the midst of the red hot moments of the battle and so would you ask the lord to give you courage to be a man of prayer a faithful watchman on the wall?

Would you pray for faith to believe that the God could use you this way in a significant way, in a powerful way? And would you ask God to help other men that you know join you on the wall? Just ask that the Lord would raise up an army in your church, among your friends, in your small group. You say, man, regardless of who else is going to do it, we're going to do it.

We're going to take our spot on the wall and we're going to start praying. So father we pray and we do believe that you're moving across our nation right now and i see you raising up college students with a fiery zeal for prayer and they're taking their spot lord and i i pray father that would increase i pray that just more and more students would take their place, their spot that nobody else can fill like they can.

But I pray, Father, behind them would be an army of men and women who would stand and take their place on the wall in ways deeper than we ever have. And we pray that you would do that literally. I don't have any problem praying this prayer that you would literally do that around the world. Yes, Lord. Thank you for the millions of believers who have prayed faithfully, who have the advance of the gospel that we're seeing today.

Lord, we know because of your grace and the faithfulness of millions of people that we won't even know until heaven. And so we thank you for that, and we just pray that it would increase. Give us more, or just give us more intercessors. Give us more husbands. Give us more wives. Give us more students who will see this as a great responsibility that they can fulfill. And Lord, we're not going to go any farther than our prayers, Lord. But Father, with prayer, we can do anything God can do.

Lord, we bring you into the equation by your grace, and you long for that to happen. You're waiting for that to happen as you train us to be watchmen on the wall. And so, Lord, just take us there. Thank you for this good word, this challenge today.

And I pray we'd be faithful in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, Kyle, thanks for that word. And, man, I can't wait until next week. I'm anxious to hear the rest of this. And I want to encourage all of you to listen in and bring a friend. Maybe some of you men have just got a buddy, and you would say to him, and he'd be a guy that you'd think could join you in this. You say, hey, look, here's the link to last week.

And then next week, let's listen together and let's get together for coffee and just talk about this. Maybe somebody in your small group and form a band of brothers who are doing this together. So thanks for joining in. And as always, we're so grateful and we will look forward to seeing you. Music.