Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #162 Watchmen on the Wall (1 - Finding Your Post on the Wall)

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#162 Watchmen on the Wall (1 - Finding Your Post on the Wall) · The OneCry Podcast

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  Music.
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  A nationwide call for spiritual awakening. The goal, accelerating the movement
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  of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Welcome once again to the One Cry Podcast.
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  I'm Bill Eliff, and with me is the golden voice of Kyle Reno.
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  Never been called that. Yeah, and we're so glad that you, joined us today.
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  I'm really excited about what God has for us today, Kyle.
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  And, you know, I don't know you know this.
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  I know you were a real athlete. You were a baseball player, and I think you
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  played everything, and you did it all well.
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  I was an extraordinary basketball player in the ninth grade.
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  I kind of peaked right there.
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  That was kind of the end of it.
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  You're self-aware. You're very self-aware. Very self-aware.
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  I was just eternally, you know, some guys who get stuck in high school and they never go beyond.
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  I was kind of athletically, I was just kind of stuck there and I went into the
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  10th grade and I played basketball, but I just didn't fill the spot real well.
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  You know, he lost something. He lost something. Yeah. And then,
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  and then suddenly they looked and lightning Billy was gone from his post.
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  I just, it just wasn't there. And you know, we all have places that we need
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  to fill and it's important to fill.
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  And, and, uh, I know you're You're going to talk about that today.
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  Yeah. Oh, man, my heart is soaring
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  with faith in light of just some things God's been reminding me of.
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  And I believe spoke to me recently against some holy ground.
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  And, you know, this bill been walking with me for years.
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  Some holy ground chapters of the Bible to me, Isaiah 58 through 62.
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  Man, they mean a lot to me. And obviously, I know we're not Israel,
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  and I know there's some specific parts that are for them then and to come.
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  And I think what it shows us in those chapters, though.
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  Is this God that longs to renew, this God that had promises of renewal for Israel,
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  and that God is always about the restorative work of His people.
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  I mean, you see even rebuilding specific places,
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  and that God has things in His heart for places and people, eras of time,
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  and some of those things in Isaiah 58 through 62 would come true in the life of that nation.
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  Some of those will come true one day. Some of those things are going to come
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  true when Christ comes and makes all things new, baby.
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  I mean, I love that about those chapters.
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  But man, there's this one place in Isaiah 62 where I feel like,
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  and often, you know this, oftentimes in the Old Testament, I feel like God gives
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  us physical pictures to help reveal spiritual truths.
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  And in Isaiah 62 verses 6 through 7,
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  I think God gives us a physical picture painting a spiritual truth about prayer
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  and how prayer works and how each person that is a part of the faith community
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  gets to be a part of the work of prayer.
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  So I'm going to read these two verses. In the next couple of weeks,
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  we're going to sort of tease this out.
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  And what I pray happens is that each one of of us see prayer in a way that moves us to pray our part.
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  That's what it says in verse 6. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen.
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  All the day and all the night. They shall never be silent.
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  You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and give him no rest until
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  he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.
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  And there's a lot of truth here to unpack, but I want you to grab hold of it.
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  Contextually, this is all about prayer.
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  This is all about the way that God sees how prayer works in the life of a nation,
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  in the life of a person that's a part of a people of faith.
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  So go back to verse 6. It says, own your walls, O Jerusalem.
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  Now, in that era of time, walls were very important.
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  They were important. They helped establish the boundaries of cities,
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  that if you're going to be a culture that really flourished and would have economy
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  and commerce and that you would be and fulfill all you intended to as a city.
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  Walls were important. Walls were protective.
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  Walls established boundaries. Walls gave a visible representation that you had
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  been solidified as a people and a place.
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  On those walls, oftentimes the city would place watchmen, cities that wanted
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  to be aware of any advance of the enemy, like someone that has eyes toward the horizon.
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  And we'll talk about this more in the role of a watchman in one of the future episodes.
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  But that's looking out for any advance, man, any inkling of an enemy coming their way.
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  But they'd also could be able to see the flourishing of the city or anything
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  that might bring a hindrance to it.
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  So let me bring that physical picture back to us and tell you a spiritual truth.
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  That when God sees cities...
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  That when God sees nations and when God sees families, that he has specifically
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  placed, this is what he says, I have set watchmen.
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  You know, verse 6 and 7 is going to paint this picture of people that are never
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  silent, that put the Lord to remembrance, that keep praying night and day until
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  he establishes Jerusalem, makes it a praise in the earth.
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  But until we get to all that outworking, you first have to believe this design of God.
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  That God says, O Jerusalem, on your walls I have set watchmen.
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  I have set men, and specifically in that, and I would speak to the hearts of
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  men, but for us as the followers of Christ, I've set men and women in different posts to pray.
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  That there is things that God desires to do in families, that God desires to
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  do in churches, that God desires to do in cities,
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  that God desires to do in our nation that only come about as each person believes
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  rightly and then shows up and stands to attention in their post in prayer.
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  So here's just a statement that I hope you believe.
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  Everyone has a post to pray.
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  Everyone has a post in prayer, meaning everyone that has been saved by Christ,
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  got to get this, has been placed by God to pray prayers only they can pray.
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  That's a huge statement.
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  Everyone that has been saved by Christ, like the moment you walked into the
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  kingdom of God, that you were made new, that you were made alive, many things happened.
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  You were adopted opted into the family of God, and inheritance became yours,
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  man, that your eternity was secure, man, so many implications to the moment
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  you were born again, but something happened that I don't think many of us believe
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  rightly, is that the moment you were also saved, you were placed,
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  by God on a post to pray prayers only you can pray,
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  that when God looked over the sovereign landscape
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  of the earth and our age and when
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  you live and where you live God said I'm gonna put you sir you ma'am in at this
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  place to pray prayers only you can pray you have a strategic vantage point in
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  prayer that no other person has.
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  Like, I think a lot of times when we think about prayer, we think about the elite few.
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  I think even our language around an intercessor, which I praise God,
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  I'm praying for intercessors and people that have gifts and passions to build
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  up and tear down and that God uses in powerful ways in prayer.
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  But I think sometimes our thoughts around that makes that this,
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  just this remnant, this few, this elite.
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  But in reality, is every person that has been saved by Christ has been placed
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  by God to pray prayers only they can pray.
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  Meaning this, it truly matters. And this is a statement that I feel like God put it in my spirit.
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  It truly matters how many of us are praying.
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  It truly matters how many of us are praying. It truly matters in your church
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  how many of you are praying, because each one has an assignment by God in prayer.
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  Each person has a post, and this is true.
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  If you skip your shift on the wall of prayer, if you don't stand your post, we all suffer.
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  That any time a person that is a follower of Christ doesn't recognize in each
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  season of their life that the God of the universe has specifically placed them
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  to pray for their family, for their city,
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  for their street, for their workplace,
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  for their church, for this nation.
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  When we don't see and assume that position, it pains the work of God.
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  No one else can pray your prayers. I'd speak to the men for a moment.
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  Man, I just preached this message on Father's Day at our church.
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  I don't know that there's a more strategic ploy of the enemy than to convince
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  men that prayer is something that women do more naturally.
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  And there's a reality to some of that, that women relationally connect with God.
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  Many times women are more conversational, more wordy, you might say,
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  in ways that God made them.
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  They have a bigger word bank at times.
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  But I think one of the greatest lies of the enemy is to rob men of their role in prayer.
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  And I just, the heart-to-heart moment to the men that are listening to this
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  podcast, nobody can stand your post in prayer.
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  Dad, nobody can pray from your vantage point with the authority that God has given you, like you.
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  Men of the church, nobody can pray the post God has sovereignly placed you in.
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  I don't care if you're a door holder or a deacon or the senior pastor.
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  Every person's got a post.
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  Every person's got a vantage point and a way of advancing God's kingdom through
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  prayer from right there.
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  Our hope is that truths like this help you to rightly believe,
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  because you've got to rightly believe before you'll live, to rightly believe this is true.
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  If you believe it, then you can live into it. Ian Bounds said something that
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  shook me years ago, and it's just stuck, keeps coming back up.
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  It says, what the church needs today is not more machinery or better,
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  not new organizations or more
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  and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use. Men of prayer.
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  Men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men.
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  He does not come on machinery, but on men. It is not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer.
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  I sense the Spirit even today. And Bill, I'd love to talk about this for a minute.
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  I sense the Lord even in our day is that God is doing something fresh in the
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  lives of men specifically.
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  And I think, man, if God would allow us by his spirit's power to rightly understand
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  the role of prayer and the post that each person has in prayer,
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  can you imagine what would happen if from the wall that God has placed you on,
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  if a continual cry came up from post to post, man, person to person that covered our cities,
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  that covered our churches, that covered our nation.
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  That would be the foundational move toward a move of God.
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  Amen. And it always is. You know, you see these extraordinary movements that
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  happen and you can always trace it back.
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  You say, well, God did that. And he did. And there's no explanation in one sense,
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  but God's grace and his sovereignty, but also he uses people.
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  And there are things he won't do if we don't pray. I mean, you have not because you ask not, right?
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  So this is, boy, this is sobering, Kyle.
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  I mean, it's exciting on one side because it says to me as a Christian,
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  but also as a man, as a husband, as a father,
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  man, there's stuff that I can do that's going to make a difference.
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  But it's also very convicting about what has not happened because I hadn't been
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  at my post or what won't happen if I don't get into my post and do the work
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  of prayer that I need to do. Yeah.
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  I mean, the collective, I'm just thinking about our listeners and the churches that are represented.
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  And this is stuck in my spirit as I was really thinking about like the collective
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  cry matters, like that people, that it truly matters how many of us are praying.
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  I get that each person needs to pray much. But and I know God can use the prayer of one.
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  Like I understand all that. But in light of God's sovereign plan,
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  it truly matters how many of us are praying because each of us have a strategic part.
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  Like God, to think that God sovereignly placed me to pray is an awesome thought.
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  You know, there's a reason why about a dozen years ago, as we were beginning this.
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  This ministry that this podcast is coming out of that we named it one cry because
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  we felt like that if we could help mobilize in some small way,
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  help mobilize the church and resource the church all across America to understand
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  the need and the means to cry out to God with humble, repentant prayer,
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  that God hears the prayers of a united cry.
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  And what you said is that I've never heard it said that way.
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  God, it matters how many people pray. Not just that we pray,
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  but how many people pray.
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  Well, that's sobering. And I know, you know, Kyle, with that said,
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  how do we mobilize more people?
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  I mean, as the listener out there who's hearing this, what would be a couple of things?
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  I'm thinking of some in my own mind that we could say to them,
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  here's how you can go mobilize more people.
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  Yeah, it's starting with me. and we're going to come back and I'm going to talk
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  about how to pray like a watchman next week and then maybe one more week to
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  talk about the establishing of God's kingdom through this.
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  But I think today it starts, Bill, I learned.
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  I mean this from you. You sort of rightly said that, you know,
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  and it goes back to the Bible, you know, that everything's impossible apart from faith.
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  So you have to you have to first rightly believe this.
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  Like, I think to fan the flame of faith around this, like, man,
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  to have faith in what God decided to do through prayer and to look.
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  And for me, it was looking into that this last week, even teaching this,
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  was looking into the eyes of my men specifically and saying every prayer from every man matters.
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  Every prayer from every man matters.
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  And when you don't pray, it's painful to us.
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  It hurts. It hurts the desire and design of God, what he wants to bring to fruition.
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  So please believe that your prayers matter.
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  Believe that your post matters. I think a lot of times we, from our vantage
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  point, what we're really doing and we don't realize is that we're standing where
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  God has placed us in time, in space right now.
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  And we're looking at somebody else's post going, man, that's the one that matters. That dude matters.
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  He's really making a difference. When God is going, you're on the same wall.
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  You're on the same wall. you're in the same work. So his role is no more important.
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  So I think to start was for you personally, but also to look into the eyes of
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  your people with that faith going, man, like you just don't know how much your prayers matter.
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  You don't know how much and what God's doing here.
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  Could I lead us in prayer for that right now? Yeah.
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  And we'd like to ask everybody to join us in prayer. And I wonder if you just bow, if you're able.
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  And I wonder if we could begin this moment of prayer with a confession.
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  If you're not manning your post, would you own up to that and just get honest
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  about it? I'm not manning my post.
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  And I ask for the Lord's cleansing for that and forgiveness.
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  Maybe that you need to go to your family.
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  I'm not saying you have to, but I'm just saying the Lord may prompt you if you
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  realize, man, I haven't manned the post in my home.
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  And that's my first church. That's my first responsibility.
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  Responsibility, and you need to say, hey, kids, to your wife,
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  I've just not done what I should have done.
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  I need you to forgive me, and I need you to pray for me that I will man this
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  post, and so just ask for the Lord's forgiveness, and then would you pray for courage?
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  Oh lord give me courage you know in a
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  in a battle it takes courage it takes
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  courage when it's just the mundane routine
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  staying by the stuff every day
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  and it takes courage in the midst of the red hot moments of the battle and so
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  would you ask the lord to give you courage to be a man of prayer a faithful watchman on the wall?
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  Would you pray for faith to believe that the God could use you this way in a
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  significant way, in a powerful way?
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  And would you ask God to help other men that you know join you on the wall?
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  Just ask that the Lord would raise up an army in your church,
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  among your friends, in your small group.
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  You say, man, regardless of who else is going to do it, we're going to do it.
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  We're going to take our spot on the wall and we're going to start praying.
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  So father we pray and we do
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  believe that you're moving across our nation right now
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  and i see you raising up
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  college students with a fiery zeal for prayer and they're taking their spot
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  lord and i i pray father that would increase i pray that just more and more
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  students would take their place,
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  their spot that nobody else can fill like they can.
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  But I pray, Father, behind them would be an army of men and women who would
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  stand and take their place on the wall in ways deeper than we ever have.
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  And we pray that you would do that literally. I don't have any problem praying
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  this prayer that you would literally do that around the world.
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  Yes, Lord. Thank you for the millions of believers who have prayed faithfully,
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  who have the advance of the gospel that we're seeing today.
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  Lord, we know because of your grace and the faithfulness of millions of people
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  that we won't even know until heaven.
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  And so we thank you for that, and we just pray that it would increase.
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  Give us more, or just give us more intercessors.
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  Give us more husbands. Give us more wives.
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  Give us more students who will see this as a great responsibility that they can fulfill.
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  And Lord, we're not going to go any farther than our prayers, Lord.
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  But Father, with prayer, we can do anything God can do.
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  Lord, we bring you into the equation by your grace, and you long for that to happen.
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  You're waiting for that to happen as you train us to be watchmen on the wall.
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  And so, Lord, just take us there. Thank you for this good word, this challenge today.
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  And I pray we'd be faithful in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
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  Amen. Well, Kyle, thanks for that word. And, man, I can't wait until next week.
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  I'm anxious to hear the rest of this.
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  And I want to encourage all of you to listen in and bring a friend.
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  Maybe some of you men have just got a buddy, and you would say to him,
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  and he'd be a guy that you'd think could join you in this.
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  You say, hey, look, here's the link to last week.
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  And then next week, let's listen together and let's get together for coffee
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  and just talk about this.
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  Maybe somebody in your small group and form a band of brothers who are doing this together.
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  So thanks for joining in. And as always, we're so grateful and we will look forward to seeing you.
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  Music.