"Watchman's Call"

Expectation. Expectation is a good word to use in describing the heart of today's word. I'd like you to consider for a moment this scene found in Exodus 11. God has told Moses to go to the people and tell them he is about to do one more plague, and that after this one last plague, Pharaoh will drive them out. He even tells them to go to their Egyptian neighbors and ask of them 'articles of silver and articles of gold.' Do you suppose there was a level of excitement? Anticipation? Was there an expectation in the air as they prepared to travel, to be free from bondage?

Now consider this scene found in Joshua 6. It is the seventh day and they are getting ready to march around the city. Today is going to be different. Today is the day. They knew that because they had orders on the other days to march once. This day they had to get up and be ready at dawn because they would be marching seven times. Do you suppose there was a level of excitement about what was about to happen? Do you suppose there was some anticipation, some expectation that was in the air as they waited for the trumpets to blow and Joshua's call to shout?

Excitement, anticipation, expectation those are the three words that best describe how I am feeling right now at this very moment. In the last week, on three separate occasions, I have been in a place of worship when I have been drawn into a place where I have ended up singing a prophetic song about 'the watchman.' Obviously I can't sing the song for you but I would like to share with you what I saw and felt, as well as the message the words, that in all honesty, have awakened such a strong sense of expectation in me about what God is about to do.

...The watchman is on the wall and he is doing exactly what a watchman is supposed to do. He is scanning the horizon. This isn't a half hearted kinda looking either. He is looking intently, with a level of anticipation that you can almost reach out and touch. He is scanning, looking, searching intently when all of a sudden, if its possible, he looks even deeper. He has seen what he has been waiting for. He jumps into motion and starts running up and down the wall yelling as loud as he can, "Awake, Awake, Everyone, wake up its here. The new dawn is here. Its morning! Awake, get up. Its here, Its here! The new day is here!" ... As I watched He just kept running up and down the wall excitedly crying out to the people to get up because the dawn had arrived. That sign, the thing he had been searching the horizon for, a glimpse of that first ray of light, because it meant that the dawn had come.

In the natural you and I might be saying, "So what. Whats the big deal? Dawn comes every day." The thing is the watchman, he knew that this wasn't just any other day. This was a day you didn't want to sleep through. He knew that whatever made this particular day special, the cry to wake up was important. You didn't want to miss out on even a second of this day.

As I was singing the words about the watchman and as this scene was unfolding the words about the new dawn seemed to take on a life of their own. I feel like the Lord was showing me that he He is about to do something new! I don't know what, how, or when, but I do know that the word new has become an amazingly exciting word to me. You know how the baby leaped in the womb when Mary approached? That is what I feel, a leap in the Spirit every time I hear, say, or even think the words, new dawn. He is about to do something new and I believe it is something you don't want to miss.

So, in the words of the watchman..."Wake up! Wake up! Its a new dawn!"

 Expectation. Expectation is a good word. What is your expectation for the new dawn?