Word for the Church: Watchman on the Wall

I normally gear my blog posts more toward devotional writing, with the occasional mention of a vision or a word of revelation the Lord gives me. 

This post will be almost entirely a prophetic word. If you're not comfortable with that, I've at least told you now at the beginning, so you can leave now if you prefer not to read on. 

The Holy Spirit spoke a word of warning clearly to me, and I feel His unction to share, according to His word: "But if I say, 'I will not mention His Word or speak anymore in His Name,' His Word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot" (Jeremiah 20:9). In Ezekiel 3:17, it says: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel, so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me." In much the same way, the Lord has confirmed for me that this is a word to speak and to warn as appropriate.

As some of you know, the Lord woke me up on the morning of January 6, 2021, and told me -- so that I knew without doubt -- that something significant would happen on that day, something that would be a physical manifestation of spiritual warfare that would hold the world's attention. As most of us know, January 6, 2021 rocked the world just a little. As I've processed the events of that day, and asked the Lord why He chose to allow me to have that word, I've come to the conclusion that He allowed it for at least two purposes: So that I could have a time of intercession such as I've only rarely experienced, and so that He could confirm for me that He is using me in a prophetic sense, and... as I've prayed for a long while... that His all-surpassing power will pour through through the faults and cracks and leaks in this vessel for His glory.

In September of 2020, before I had begun keeping a prophetic journal of everything the Holy Spirit showed me (and as a result, I don't have the exact date), the Lord gave me a vision. I was in a theater, and I was sitting in the seats watching the stage. On the stage, various animals arrived on the boards and played and danced and did animal-type of things. There was a bear at one point, some other animals. None seemed super significant until the deer came. 

As the deer danced on the stage, flags of all the nations of the world began to flash through the air above the deer in a large circle, but so swiftly, I could hardly keep up with them. I recognized some of the flags, but only a few. Significantly, Israel's flag was one I recognized. When the flags stopped circling, a few of them -- eight or nine, although I can't remember the exact amount -- stacked up in hierarchical order, almost like a totem pole. I didn't recognize all the flags, but again, Israel's was a part of the totem pole. And the flags, in the semblance of a pole, came down on the neck of the deer, and weighed it down, so that its nose was against the stage boards, and its dancing stopped. 

I'll get back to the interpretation for this in a minute, because I didn't understand it for a long while, and the Holy Spirit showed me some other things over the course of months to bring me back to this message. So I'm going to lay out the other visions that follow in this significant track, and then I'll bring up the prophetic word of warning.

A little over a year later, on September 29, 2021 (after I had begun keeping a prophetic journal, so I have the exact date this time), the Holy Spirit showed me the modern-day city of Jerusalem from the perspective that you see in many tourist photos, with the Dome of the Rock shining gold in the sun, and the wailing wall of Solomon's temple just below it and to the side. There was a lone figure on top of Solomon's wall, and I saw that it was me. So my perspective was both from on top of the wall as well as a general overview of the scene. I was watching the Dome of the Rock from the top of the wall. Ezekiel 33:1-6 came to my heart about the watchman on the wall shouting a warning, but I wasn't sure who I should be warning, or exactly what at that point.

Below me, on the ground at the foot of the wall, instead of the normal crowd of tourists, were rabbis. They were sitting at tables lined up along the base of the wall and studying ancient scrolls on those tables, and they were cradling their heads in their hands as if they were confused or desperate -- or both -- as they searched the scrolls for answers.

As this was happening, what looked like massive tree roots sprouted from the sides of the Dome of the Rock (not the base, which I thought was interesting). About midway up the building, these huge roots grew outward from the walls and reached for the ground. It was like they had personality, because as soon as they reached the ground, they grabbed dust surrounding the building, and began to throw it up over the Dome, so that the dust covered the gold, and you couldn't even see it anymore. It was like a sandstorm so thick, that the whole Dome disappeared from view, and all you could see was dirt and dust.

I won't go into the interpretation of this specific vision, because I'm still not absolutely sure what the interpretation is, though I've got some thoughts about it. However, after I saw this vision, I heard the word: Watch! It was spoken with urgency and immediacy. I thought: I AM watching; how could I look away?

So, in obedience, I began to do what the voice of the Holy Spirit said: Watch! I began checking the Jerusalem Post every day, and googled whatever information I could find -- daily -- of events happening in regard to Jerusalem and Israel. 

I admit... I slacked a little after a few weeks. It was interesting, but again, I've been so busy, it's easy to let a few things go, and I let it go after a while. 

Then on November 23, 2021, the Holy Spirit brought that same vision back to mind, and in my heart and mind, very clearly, He spoke: Just like Simeon. I immediately went back to read about Simeon in the Luke account, specifically Luke 2:25-27: "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts..."

This was a wake-up call for me: The Lord had told me to watch... and I essentially fell asleep at the wheel. Simeon moved in the temple courts with expectancy, urgency, and intensity. In the same way, we are waiting for the Consolation of Israel, though in His glorious coming, as King of kings this time. So I renewed my zeal to watch. Watch, watch, watch. And as Ezekiel 3 and 33 instruct, to warn as I see things coming.

Then, on December 17, 2021, the Holy Spirit reminded me again of the deer vision (at the top of this post), and it was stunning to me to realize that the deer vision and the wall vision and the Simeon reminder all feed into the same burden the Lord placed on my heart: To watch what is happening in Jerusalem as we wait for Christ's return. 

This time, when the Holy Spirit brought the deer and the totem pole of flags before me, the Lord took me back to Psalm 42:1: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul thirst for You, oh God, for the living God!" In Biblical symbology, a deer stands for piety, devotion, and safety in God's care.

But the deer I saw in the vision had been weighed down beneath this union of nations. It had lost its ability to leap and play. It had lost its symbolism. As the Lord took me back over my visions and the burdens He's placed on me to watch and pray, His Holy Spirit said: All of this is for the deer.

I asked: "What do you mean, Lord?" He took me back to Psalm 42, and as I read the Psalm, I realized that the entire thing talks about the Psalmist's unquenchable thirst for God, a cry out to God for deliverance from being down-trodden, the almost neck-breaking strain of the world and its pressures and war against the writer, and how -- like a deer that longs for water -- so the soul longs for God, for His peace. The writer brings up memories of peace, and longs to return to it.

And I'm ashamed that it took me over a year to realize the full interpretation for this vision: The union of nations is a union of peace. The Lord showed it to me two weeks before the Abraham Accords, the treaty of peace in the Middle East, was signed. I remember sending a query text to a pastor friend of mine to wonder if there was any correlation between the vision and the Accords. When the Lord brought this back to mind, He showed me that the countries (of which Israel was a part) would give the appearance of peace, BUT -- significantly, as those peace deals continue, the weight of them will stack up, bend, and eventually break the neck of the deer (the deer symbolizing the desire for peace, according to Psalm 42).

All that leads up to the word I had the next day, on December 18, 2021. As a result of the visions that the Holy Spirit gave that day, I must admit, I feel a little like Daniel in Daniel 8:27: "I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding." 

Because of the significant lead-up to this day, I do believe the Holy Spirit is asking me to share this on my blog. So here is the vision: 

"Yesterday's word was: The weight of peace will break the neck of peace. It's a theme that ramps up toward Biblical end-times prophecy and signs of the times.

In prayer this morning, the Holy Spirit showed me a mountainous terrain and a big sky, and in that sky was an object that looked like a far-distant rock. A hand appeared and pointed at the rock. The verse came to my heart: "While you were watching, a Rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them... but the Rock that struck the statue became a huge Mountain and filled the whole earth" (Daniel 2:34-35). It was followed quickly by another verse I'd read this morning in Deuteronomy, and again in the New Testament: "For in Scripture it says: 'See, I lay a Stone in Zion, a chosen and precious Cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.' Now to you who believe, this Stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, 'The Stone the builders rejected has become the Capstone,' and 'A stone that causes people to stumble and a Rock that makes them fall'" (1 Peter 2:6-8).

As these verses came to me, the perspective flipped, so that the world -- literally, in the vision -- turned upside-down. The sky with the Rock was underneath, while the mountainous terrain hung upside-down from the top.

This, to me, was fairly clear and not at all surprising. The coming of that Rock uncut by human hands will turn the world upside-down. It will cause havoc and division as the Word makes clear -- separation of sheep/goats, etc. 

The vision went from there to a panoramic view of the globe. From my perspective, I could see the world turning slowly as it does, and the continents passed beneath me as the world moved from east to west. I was not the Lord's Spirit moving over the earth, but I knew that the Lord's Spirit was moving over the earth. As I watched, the Atlantic had passed beneath my perspective, and I saw Africa and the Middle East coming up, and in the distance, Asia in the east and where Russia would be in the far north, etc. On the land, people from every nation were visible. Most huddled down, swarming about like mice, hurrying, hurrying, busy, hurrying, pausing, stopping, trembling, as mice do. None looked up. Others, many fewer, did look up. As the Holy Spirit passed over them, they raised their hands with joy and excitement. They were loud and jubilant and joyous. But the people around them ignored them, and even looked at them like they were crazy. Those people continued to refuse to look up.

This feeds in with the first part of the vision: The separation of sheep and goats, the Rock that causes men to stumble becoming the Capstone. They will call us fools; they will continue to refuse the reality of the Lord's coming.

Then, suddenly, there was a massive earthquake that shook whole continents, everything that I could see. A wide chasm opened up starting in the far east, along the borders of where China and Russia shared a common boundary. The rift split the earth traveling in a westward direction, reaching as far as the Middle East. The rift was gigantic, covering wide swaths of land.  

And then I saw a train track. From the east, an enormous speeding bullet train came flying across the land. And from the west, another train came, much smaller than the one from the east. They were on the same track, and a collision was inevitable. In a moment, the train from the east slammed into the train from the west and plowed over it so forcefully that the engine on the train from the west turned completely on its head and fell off the track as the train from the east barreled through." 

As the Lord has given me these words and visions, and as He has confirmed them several times over, I believe the warning He wants me to give is this: War is coming. I don't know what this will look like, or who exactly it will involve, but it seems to be world-encompassing, and it seems to be clearly divided between east and west. Significantly, the whole continental plain across the Atlantic will be a central stage of it as well (as signified by the rift across that whole land, which I believe is metaphorical rather than physical). And worldwide, believers and unbelievers will be distinguished, one from the other, at this time.

Y'all... this is heavy, heavy stuff. But -- and I want to make this oh so clear -- it should not be accompanied by fear ("For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" - 2 Timothy 1:7), but rather by a sense of expectancy and hope, as well as a strong sense of urgency. Our Lord is returning! The harvest is ripening, the storehouses are closing, the bride is making herself ready, and the Groom is coming!

"When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near!" (Luke 21:28). 

Love y'all.