The Old Testament indicates that there are two different types of towers. The first of these is the Strong Tower or High Tower, two of Bible's many pseudonyms.
Solomon said, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe" (Proverbs 18:10, NKJV).
David, the psalmist said, "For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from my enemy" (Psalm 61:3).
David also said, "Blessed the the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle - my lovingkindness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and the One in whom I take refuge, ..." (Psalm 144:1, 2, emphasis added).
The second type is the watchtower or tower.
Isaiah, talking about the Lord's vineyard, said: "He (God) dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, ..." (Isaiah 5:2).
Spiritually speaking, the watchtower is the Church, a refuge from the world.
General situation today
The Strong Tower (the Lord) and the watchtower (the Church) both serve a similar function in that they are always to provide a refuge from the enemy. However, only one of these is functioning at full capacity today - the Strong Tower, the invincible, eternal Tower (God). The watchtower is growing weak and crumbling, no longer offering the saints a refuge where they may enjoy thoughts that mirror God's thoughts and ways that are the ways of God. If a Church adopts the ways of the same world it is supposed to oppose, the saints can no longer receive the relief they used to in their Church.
Today believers do not pray as much as they should and so they cut themselves from God. Consequently, they lose the knowledge of the Holy God. Yet, at the same time a few believers sense a need to return to seeking the Lord in prayer. These are the ones that regularly attend the Church prayer meetings. They want to know and experience their Lord, not just promote a moral way of living. What unavoidably ensures is a split between those who attend prayer meetings and those who do not.
The watchtower divided against itself
The most basic cause of all these splits is a lack of unity. The contemporary believers lose their unity when they begin to develop vastly different convictions. This potpourri of convictions surfaces because most of the believers base their convictions on elements they do not share in common: their respective pasts and feelings. Everyone has a different past. If everyone bases his convictions on his past, his convictions will, therefore, be as distinct as his past. The same is true of feelings, whcih are both unique and fickle. Believers are living their lives in the soul realm instead of in the spirit realm. They are divided because they were not led by the Spirit of God.
The early New Testament believers, on the other hand, were of one mind, sharing common beliefs and convictions. These common convictions became the mortar that held their tower together, without which it would have crumbled. They shared common convictions because they received them from a common source - the Holy Spirit. As I shared in an earlier message - "Victory in seeking God", convictions are established by the Holy Spirit (John 16:7 - 11). Not only they shared common convictions, but also shared everything together:
"And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer" (Acts 2:42).
Notice that instead of Church split, the following verses (Acts 2:44 - 47) say many were added to the Church daily!
Transformation brought by the Strong Tower
God will always be a refuge for His people. He will always be a strong tower. This means if the Church does not also act as a refuge, we will go to God for our protection from the world. This can happen if the world gets into the Church and the Pastors and leaders have no communication with God - not seeking God in prayer.
A transformation takes place when you spend time with God. Slowly, you begin to think the way God thinks. Your thoughts become His thoughts. For example, Solomon, talking about the wisdom of God, said:
"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate" (Proverbs 8:13).
The above teaches that God hates evil and that the one who truly fears the Lord will hate evil. Yet today very few believers hate evil. Most of us can't even grasp the notion of despising and loathing evil as God does. We don't hate evil. We tolerate it. We form indifferences toward it. Sometimes, we even flirt with it!
The word "hate" is a very strong verb. It transcends "dislike" by miles and not even in the same category with "indifference". Hate indicates strong, passionate, sometimes uncontrollable emotion. The believer who spends time with God will understand and know this hatred of evil. The believer who neglects to spend time with God will never know or even begin to understand it.
A bond strengthens in prayer between God and the believer. As he begins to think and act more like God, issues around him become very black and white in contrast. For him, "to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). Either issues around him are for God, or they are against God. Nothing is truly neutral for him. Whatever is not for God is against Him (Matt. 12:30). He sees no middle ground because he evaluates life on God's scale of importance - eternity.
Isaish said, "Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:8, 9, NIV).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Isaiah was following God's law, doing things God's way. Futhermore, he said that he wanted God, he wanted His Name to be know, and he wanted God to be remembered.
2. Isaiah wanted God, day and night. There was nothing in the world that he wanted more. His spirit was contnually longing after God; his spirit was continually seeking Him.
3. According to Isaiah, people only learn righteousness when judgments of God come upon the earth. I believe the presnt economic crisis is God's way of teaching the poeple of the world righteousness! Amazing!
Calling sin, sin
As far as the people of the world are concerned, sin is not big news. After all who doesn't sin? The news is judgment. That which the world discovers as sinful in the Church is not the problem. The problem is how the Church handles sinfulness. Once a Church stops dealing with sin, it no longer show the world the majesty of God.
A Christian who spends time with God and seeks Him in prayer develops the sensitivity of the prophet Isaiah. He has the eyes and ears of a prophet. He wants his God glorified; he wants his tower (the Church) to remain strong, a refuge from the world. His whole thought is that the Church must call sin, sin!
A person's concept of the Strong Tower
Most people receive their concept of God from their Church or denomination. A believer is generally able to have faith in God only to the degree that his Church does. For example, a believer who attends a Baptist or Lutheran Church will not believe in divine healing or speaking in tongues. Why? It is because his Church does not teach it. On the other hand, a believer who attends a Charismatic or Pentecostal Church will believer most fervently in such divine manifestations. It is because his Church teaches it.
Your faith in God is limited to your concept of God. No Church can rise above its own level of faith. If your Pastor preaches that divine healing is a manifestation of God limited to the days of the apostles, then it is likely that you will believe this also. Consequently, you will not have the faith that would lead you to pray for healing.
Elisha's and Moses' concept of God
We need to develop our own concept of God and not to rely on another person's concept of God. I discovered, with amazement, that even Elisha failed to have his own concept of God in the beginning of his ministry.
Elisha was following Elijah all the way from Gilgal to River Jordan. He had just witnessed the power of God in parting the waters and in taking Elijah up in a chariot of fire. The Scripture says:
"Then he (Elisha) took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, 'Where is the Lord God of Elijah?' And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over" (2 Kings 2:14, NKJV, emphasis added).
Now, why didn't he cry, "Where is the Lord, my God"? It is because Elisha was dependant on Elijah for his concept of God. he has no concept of God of his own yet.
Similarly, God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush as a third Person for the simple reason Moses and the children of Israel had no concept of God of their own yet.
"God said to Moses, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The Lord God of your fathers; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations'" (Exodus 3:15, NKJV, emphasis added).
The danger of an inaccurate concept of God
The contemporary Church, in general, has been focusing on the Word of God to the exclusion of prayer. This has resulted in a very human concept of God. The Word of God deals with the fleshly aspect of God - the Word became flesh. Because of a focus on God's Word only, we have developed a very fleshly approach to God. Our worship of Him is also fleshly. We need to understand that the Word of God gives us the human concept of God. Prayer reminds us of the deity of God. Today, because of the lack of prayer, we have lost sight of the deity of Christ. From the lack of prayer and the Word, we have developed a concept of God that is off-center. Ministries that have a wrong concept of God then develop wrong concepts of God in the lives of those they bring to Christ. Mistakes like these are very serious because our concept of God determines how we worship God.
If we are not seeing God as He is and developing a concept of Him that is true to His nature, then we will see Him as He is not. The result will be that we will offer Him offensive worship - strange fire. There is a good example of offering strange fire to God recorded in the Book of Leviticus:
"Nadab and Abithu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, 'This is what the Lord spoke, saying: 'By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified.'" (Lev. 10:1 - 3, NKJV, emphasis added).
Moses was telling Aaron not to be surprises at what happened to his sons because God has said that anybody who worships Him must treat Him as holy. Aaron's sons came before God offering Him strange fire or worship that is not in character with who God really is. God will not accept worship that is contrary to His true nature.
Revelation of the Strong Tower
Whenever God revealed Himself afresh to His people, it changes their concept of Him and their worship of Him. Isaiah had a supernatural revelation of God in which the Lord was surrounded by seraphim crying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host; the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3)! With this revelation, Iasiah became a great prophet of God, and he said to God, "Here am I! Send me" (Isaiah 6:8).
Many Church revivals started with a fresh revelation of God. For example, Charles Wesley received a fresh revelation of God and this enabled him to write many classic hymns. Those hymns were a result of a concept of God that was based on the revelation knowledge he received from God. His brother Jonathan was bringing the revival in with his anointed preaching.
God wants us to have our own revelation of Him, not some warmed-over revelation that was somebody else's. The only way we'll ever have our own revelation of God is through seeking Him in prayer and the Word. There is no short cut. If we don't see God as He is, how can we show others who God really is? We may be leading them into false worship!
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