|
TEACHING: 12 SCRIPTURAL REASONS
TO JOURNAL AS A WATCHMAN
There are many motives for
journaling as a watchman. After journaling an average
of 100 pages per month since 1984, I can probably say I
have covered all the good and bad reasons for
journaling! On the wrong side, if it is a journal about
walking with God, then it is not going to be a negative
catharsis of your own miseries, nor is it going to be
venting a record about other people and their wrongs.
Journaling takes time and
commitment and it can become a job. After journaling
for 26 years I have clearly faced a few seasons of
extreme burnout where I didn't think I had the grace to
continue. When you hit a brick wall and don't think you
can dip your pen in the ink even one more time, every
motive for journaling, surely goes through the fire.
Ps
12:6-7 NKJV
The
words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times. You shall keep
them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this
generation forever.
That being said, here is a list of
some of the scriptural reasons I have discovered, to
journal as a watchman.
1) To Delight God - Giving
Him Joy
Mal
3:16 NKJV
Then
those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the
Lord listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance
was written before Him. For those who fear the Lord and
who meditate on His name.
My highest motive for journaling is
to give God delight! The Lord loves to listen to those
who speak about Him. It means so much to Him that He
has recorded a book of remembrance.
Here is my favorite Word given to
me about writing as a gift to the Lord.
1/13/09
EXPERIENCE:
Today,
when I was driving in the car, I had a picture of my
going up to someone and gazing into their eyes. I
specifically took their cheeks in my hands and looked
into their eyes and prophesied into that person with all
the love I had. I had the feeling that the gesture was
significant, that I really needed to reach deep inside
to that person’s heart. After seeing that, I told the
Lord after seeing that picture that I really wanted to
prophesy over people with this same deep level of love
into their need.
A few hours later we went to a house meeting and 3
people prayed over each one of us and gave the Words of
the Lord. The 3 were behind the hot seat, laying hands
on the person sitting there. When it was my turn to be
prayed for, one of them heard the Lord tell her that she
was to go around to the front of me and hold my cheeks
and look into my eyes and tell me something! Here is
what she heard:
“Tell her I can hardly wait to read what she writes each
day! I can hardly wait to see how she pulls it all
together.” She said, "You are called to
be His scribe to the body of Christ." She later told me
that it was awesome to think about, because I had His
anointing and gift to write, but He trusted me enough to
write for Him and He wanted to read it. I was
overwhelmed with tears, it had to be the most honored,
loving Word I had ever received.
As we were leaving the meeting, she specifically again
mentioned that she was told to take my cheeks and look
into my eyes. Upon her repeating that, the Holy Spirit
brought back the picture I had a few hours earlier of my
doing that very same thing in the car! All the love and
yearning I experienced when seeing that picture - to
reach the depths of that person I was speaking into!
That was the LORD for me!!!!!!!!
When I have been in the deepest
pit, having faced the judgments and opinions of men, the
curses of witchcraft , the demonic slime and health
issues... not knowing if I had the grace to continue,
the Lord has brought that amazing Word back into my
memory. God has given us EVERYTHING. He is so rich.
The fact that we can give Him joy by journaling His
Words, is such a blessing. I had no idea my writing
gave Him pleasure!!!! It gives me so much honor and
zeal to think I give Him joyful anticipation in what I
write!
2. To Keep Things In
Remembrance - The Power to Recall
John
14:26 NKJV
But the
Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My
name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all things that I said to you.
When we record the stirrings from
the Holy Spirit, what is quickened, the revelations He
gives us, our prayers and answers, anything about our
journey in Him, it gives us the ability to go to the
source. After several thousand pages, the Holy Spirit
whispers maybe just one keyword to me, and I have the
ability to do a word search and find all the times He
spoke that word in other settings. Many times when I go
back to the original source of having written it down, I
find the details that I have forgotten. I can then
bring all the nuggets together, bypassing years and time
and see the larger picture of what He is saying.
3. Stirring The Gift He Gave
- Priming the Pump of Living Waters
Mark
4:23-25 NKJV
If
anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Then He said to
them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure
you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who
hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more
will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he
has will be taken away from him."
Journaling our life in God is one
way of stirring the living waters of the Holy Spirit.
The more we utilize the gifts He gives us, the more He
gives. The more we hear from Him and use what we hear,
the more He gives us. When we write under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is His living waters
flowing through us. Journaling is drawing those waters
up and overflowing at the surface. Journaling God's
Words is spending time in His anointing, with Him!
4) Chance To Teach -
Educating Others On God's Point Of View
John
15:20 NKJV
... If
they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
I once heard a writing teacher say,
"Show it, don't tell it." It was a profound cliché that
has been a life long help to me. No one wants to listen
to a dry black board lecture of knowledge. Everyone
wants to see the same knowledge come alive with living
examples.
Jesus taught by example. His life
was a role model and living example of the heavenly
Father that no one could see. He showed the kingdom of
God by walking it out and He also shared living parables
from their surrounding environment to share His Truth.
When you journal as a watchman, you
have a chance to share your story of how God reaches you
and then share it with others. Teaching by modeling is
a powerful tool through the written word.
5) Chance To Vote -
Planting His Kingdom On Earth
Job
22:28 KJV
Thou
shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established
unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
The scripture is very clear that
our words have power to speak life and death, blessings
and cursings. We are the salt of the earth and much of
our salt or lack of it comes through our words. Our
vote matters in everything we say. To walk as a
watchman on the walls, we must be very careful about
what we say and only use our words to cast our vote for
God's kingdom, not our own, and not the world's. Our
vote for God is always yes to Him and no to the devil.
When we are faithful with God's Words, He gives us great
authority and what we say casts our vote into the earth.
Prov
18:21 NKJV
Death
and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who
love it will eat its fruit.
When we journal the Words of the
Lord we have been given the tool to overcome evil with
good. We do this through obeying the definitions of
love and also fixing our minds on whatsoever things are
of good report.
1 Cor
13:4-7
Love is
patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or
proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not
irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices
whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never
loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through
every circumstance.
Phil
4:8 AMP
For the
rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of
reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable,
whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is
any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy
of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these
things [fix your minds on them].
6) Anointed Hands - Turning
to the Word of the Lord
Ps
119:105 NKJV
Your
word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
I love the gift of anointed hands!
That is simply giving your hands to God and asking Him
to consecrate them for His good work. Then when you
need to hear from Him, you can pray over your hands and
open at random a time in your journal! In dark times
when God is not talking, or hiding His face, the past
Words of the Lord and His promises carry you. If you
did not journal, you would not have the ability to
re-live those precious faith lifters any time you need
them!
7) Building a Legacy -
Leaving Memorial Stones for Another Generation
Deut
6:7-9 NKJV
You
shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall
talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk
by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You
shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall
be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them
on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
As a spiritual parent, I have
something to pass down to my children. When you are
young, you are too busy accomplishing what you want to
be. When you get married you are too busy taking care
of your family. So it is not easy for someone who is
younger to be able to journal in the same way I do. I
was given the time, grace and lifestyle to journal as a
full time commitment. Not everyone has that grace.
However I read the simple
autobiography of one of my relatives. It was a very
small book and written very simply. And yet her story
came alive on the pages and it inspired me so much to
see how the Lord had taken care of her and been with her
through out her life. She spotlighted a few of her
stories, skipping from here to there and she had written
a treasure for her progeny yet unborn. Within every one
of us is a story, our history, His story of how we got
through life with His Words to us. If all we do is
journal for the sake of a loved one yet to come, we have
planted something very precious before we die.
8) The Power to Keep -
Treasuring His Words as keepsakes
John
14:23-24 NKJV
Jesus
answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will
keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will
come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not
love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you
hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.
Have you ever saved a special card,
letter or note from your loved one, and kept it in a
special place? If you do that, it says that you have
treasured it as something valuable from someone's words
that really matter to you. That's what we do when we
keep God's Word.
Wow the Lord strongly emphasizes
"keeping" His Word. If we keep His Word, we are
promised intimacy with Him! He even mentions the
promise with the same Greek word, that if we "keep" His
command to persevere, He will "keep" us from the hour of
trial that will come upon the whole earth.
KEEP
NT:5083
tereo
(tay-reh'-o); from teros (a watch; perhaps akin to
NT:2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly, by
keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from NT:5442,
which is properly to prevent escaping; and from NT:2892,
which implies a fortress or full military lines of
apparatus), i.e. to note (a prophecy; figuratively, to
fulfil a command); by implication, to detain (in
custody; figuratively, to maintain); by extension, to
withhold (for personal ends; figuratively, to keep
unmarried); by extension, to withhold (for personal
ends; figuratively, to keep unmarried):
KJV - hold
fast, keep (-er), (pre-, re-) serve, watch.
Rev
3:10-11 NKJV
Because
you have kept {5083} My command to persevere, I also
will keep {5083} you from the hour of trial which shall
come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on
the earth.
What is keeping His Word? Keeping
His Word is holding it in our hearts, in memory,
pondering it, watching over His Word and seeing how it
applies to every day life and also in the world.
Keeping His Word is preserving it, holding on to it as
our dearest treasure. Keeping His Word is so honoring
it as from His heart, that we obey it as our highest
level of Truth. In so doing, we also keep ourselves
from the wiles of the devil and the world. One of the
ways we can keep His Word is to journal.
9) Building Faith -
Hearing the Word of God
Rom
10:17
So then
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
When we journal, we are given the
power to change lives by letting others hear the Lord of
the Lord through us. Their faith is built by hearing
His Word. When God gives us a Word over our having
faced a certain circumstance, it is a powerful testimony
and increases the faith of those who are following in
similar journeys.
When my son had our third
grandchild, they discovered she had heart problems in
the womb. She was safe getting the oxygen she needed
through the placenta, but once born she would need open
heart surgery where they stopped her heart. Many people
prayed for this precious child as she was growing and
she was not healed in the womb. She had 3 surgeries in
her first 2 weeks of life.
One of the most precious gifts
knocked on their door a week before birth. A Christian
family they had not met brought their children and a
casserole over to their home, to freeze for later. As
they sat down on their couch, they said they had a story
to tell them. And they proceeded to share how their
baby had the same condition in the womb and had to go
through the same surgery. They shared how God brought
them through the trauma and here was that precious
child, a living testimony before their very eyes. One
can only imagine the life line this gave my son and
daughter in law as they walked through the days ahead.
We have no idea how much our lives
make a difference to someone else! When we journal our
walk with the Lord, we have a chance to build the faith
of others!
10) A Sacrifice of Time -
Sacrifice into His secret place of intimacy
Luke
2:37-38 NKJV
...and
this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who
did not depart from the temple, but served God with
fastings and prayers night and day.
When we journal the Word of the
Lord and what He is saying to us, it really is a
sacrifice. It is saying that we value spending time
with Him more than any other thing we could be doing at
that time. The Lord has promised that He will gather us
TO HIM, if our lives are a sacrifice to Him.
Ps 50:5
NKJV
"Gather
My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant
with Me by sacrifice."
11) Study to be Approved -
Knowledge Built Through Personal Revelation
2 Tim
2:15 AMP
Study
and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to
God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no
cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately
dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the
Word of Truth.
Studying can become an exercise of
the mind where one will leave the table with a bigger
head and drier heart. The key to studying the Word of
God is to make it personal with His quickened Words, and
to ask for revelation so that He will reveal even deeper
truths to what we already know. The more we journal His
Words and what He has said to us in the past, the more
pieces of revelation have a chance to puzzle together.
It really is an enjoyable time when we read passages of
scripture and draw upon our history and connect it with
what He is saying now.
12) Write the Vision - Be
Accountable With What We are Given
Hab
2:2-3 NKJV
Then
the Lord answered me and said: "Write the vision and
make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the
end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it
tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it
will not tarry.
Being a Watchman is a position and
a job. As we are faithful with what He gives, He will
give us more. It is very hard to be a watchman and see
past the first yard without keeping track of what He has
already been saying. He asks His watchman to keep a
record.
CLICK HERE TO READ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO THIS
TEACHING
|
