God’s Forward Observers

by Tom Goodman

Have you noticed how often the words “watch” and “pray” are combined in the Bible? Our praying should make us more attentive, our attentiveness should lead us more often to prayer, which should make us even more attentive, and on and on in a building cycle.

If we should we watchful, for what should be watching? We should be alert to the activity of God and pray for its success, and we should be alert to the activity of the Evil One and pray for its defeat.

I remember a story from a pastor who was a Vietnam vet. He recounted how his battalion would set up a firebase in the jungle with huge 8-inch guns. Then, companies of soldiers would fan out in four directions from the base, looking for the enemy. Often, when the enemy was found, they would be in much greater number than the company of American soldiers. When that happened, the company would simply get on the radio and call in the coordinates of the enemy so the firebase could rain shells down on them. The vet said that Christians are God's forward observers in enemy territory. And when we encounter the enemy, we must call down the firepower of heaven.

Ever since he visualized prayer in that way for me, it has energized my prayer life. We must be alert to the work of the enemy. We must be sensitive to his ways in personal relationships, church matters, governmental affairs—we must be awake to his whereabouts, and when we discover his acti­vity, we must radio those coordinates to heaven, calling on the power of divine guns.

We must obey the Scriptures that repeatedly tell us to watch and pray. We must pray for the divine activity we see around us and against the demonic activity we see around us.

How alert are you to these things? Some of us are so focused on our own plans, our own pains, and our own pleasures so much so that we have no sensitivity to the spiritual warfare around us. Maybe today you need to confess, “When it comes to my prayer life, I want to be more alert. I’ve neglected to be God’s forward observer, I’ve been AWOL, but I want to count for him again.”

__________________________________________

Subscribe to “Winning Ways” and
it will arrive in your inbox each Wednesday
hillcrest.church/newsletters