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September, 2004

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Bible Reading Plan

WATCHMEN ON THE WALL
BY MARILYN CONRAD

One unit of our curriculum used in Covenant Keeper groups dealing with deception was developed in an unusual way. It was prompted by a dream that Marilyn Phillipps, co-founder of University of the Family, related to me. In her dream she and I were at one of our annual "Families Are Forever" conferences held in a Tulsa hotel with a shopping galleria. Many couples were arriving; a bus had pulled up in front of the hotel and droves of couples got off. We were all so excited to see these healed marriages.

Then Marilyn said she went into a shoe store in the galleria. The young salesman waiting on her brought a tub filled to the top with shoes. As she searched among the shoes she began to tell him about the conference. He responded by saying, "My wife and I are divorced, but she has been praying for me; I am so sorry and I want to go home." Marilyn shared with him how God could indeed heal his marriage.

At that moment a young woman entered the store, and Marilyn knew it was his wife. She went to her and told her of her husband's desire to come home and how much God wanted them to reconcile. To Marilyn's amazement the salesman's wife said, "I've changed my mind." She refused to listen as Marilyn continued to share with her.

We know that we must use wisdom when considering dreams, because not all dreams are from God. So Marilyn and I prayed about her dream and also had the ministry intercessors pray. We all felt that God was speaking through Marilyn's dream.

We had a consensus that the Lord was showing us that it was harvest time where our marriages were concerned. That is why all those arriving at the conference were couples. The enemy knew this and was going to attack many covenant keepers by causing them to be deceived when their mates were ready to return.

We prayed and bound the spirit of deception. We claimed the mind of Christ for all covenant keepers and the strength and ability to obey what God had placed in their hearts.

Then we prayed about the many shoes in the tub. They represented healing all across our nation and around the world. We prayed and claimed that our steps and those of our mates are guided and directed by the Lord. We tripped every trap the devil had laid for any of us and rendered them ineffective, inoperative, null and void. We claimed God's perfect will for all of us and the ability and discernment to recognize what is not of God.

Marilyn Phillipps was a watchman on the wall, foreseeing danger and warning us so that we could pray and stop the devil's plans. "I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth." Isaiah 62:6-7 NIV.

Many in our ministry were praying for a couple who had divorced a year earlier. The wife left her husband and remarried the day the divorce was granted. The husband stood and believed God to bring her back to him and their children. Her new marriage crumbled in less than a year, at which time the repentant wife contacted her husband and asked to come home.

Unfortunately, the husband had become involved with a woman in their church and told his homeward-bound wife that he had changed his mind. Pastors and elders talked with him while ministering to the wife, sharing some of our materials with her. We all continued to pray and do spiritual warfare.

I wish I could give you a victory report, but I can't. The husband continued the relationship with the other woman. I share this example to remind you that we are all susceptible to deception.

God is truly moving on our mates, and more marriages are coming back together. Increasingly, husbands and wives are listening to and seeing their mates after long periods of separation. As many of God's people have prophesied, this is truly a season of restoration!

Like Marilyn, we are all called to be watchmen on the wall. Watchmen are warriors who not only protect and defend but who also spy out the enemy's strongholds and plans. Then through spiritual warfare, the watchmen/warriors pull down his strongholds and loose God's will, plan and purpose to be done. We are called to be aggressive and overthrow and destroy the devil's plans for our own lives and for this ministry.

A focus of the enemy's plan is for us to succumb to deception. "How could this happen?" we ask. After all, we have spent months, even years, praying and believing for our marriages to be healed. We think that our mates are the ones who are deceived, not us!

The fact that many of us experience difficult and even seemingly hopeless situations and circumstances in our lives lets us know that our appointed time to receive our miracles from God is near. The enemy fights with all he has to discourage us and destroy our faith so we will just give up. On the other hand, God encourages and lets us know that in Christ we are more than conquerors.

Be aware of what the devil has planned. The Word says we are not to be ignorant of his devices. We must learn from the mistakes of others. Guard against deception by spending time in God's Word and in prayer. Don't assume that someone else will do your praying for you. If you do, you are an open target for the deception that God warns us about. The destruction of homes and marriages around the world is massive and requires all of us to join together in prayer. We are all watchmen on the walls.

We cannot stop now; we must press in and receive our harvest. God wants to restore all we have lost and even more. He is able to do "exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think!" Ephesians 3:20.

In the scriptures, when something is restored, it is always increased or improved so that the latter state is better than its original condition. Joel 2:25-26 says, "And I will restore or replace for the years that the locust has eaten—the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locus,. My army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wonderfully with you. And my people shall never be put to shame."