Watchers and Holy Ones; A Study From The Book Of Daniel
ZADOK PUBLICATIONS - Dr. C. R. OLIVER
May 1, 2005

You may watch this Newsletter in a video HERE.

ZADOK PUBLICATIONS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

May 1, 2005

Watchers and Holy Ones
A Study From The Book Of Daniel

Recently, a prayer warrior from Virginia rang us just to visit and say she and her mother (aged 94) felt prompted to discuss a few things. During the course of an hour conversation, this lady asked us to pray for them because several intercessors would be gathering the following Monday for a 10 hr. prayer session. The group had been prompted by the Spirit to prepare for events taking place or about to take place, which warranted an intense all day effort.

Immediately, the Spirit quickened Daniel 4 in me and the passages about the "Watchers and Holy Ones."

I then asked her if she was ready to curse some folks. There was a long pause and she said, "What do you mean?" My reply centered around several issues. When finished, she asked me to write down what our discussion was about and email her. She wanted to study it and then pass it on. Again the Lord said, "This is what I want you to write about in the May 1st newsletter." He knew I had been heading in a different direction. Undoubtedly, there were others to whom this material had application.

My initial question had to do with judgment, which was the opposite of "blessing folks." I offered her the following example:

"In 1994, October, after being moved by the Spirit to enter Romania, one of my first posts was in the city of Arad. This is one of the first cities east of Budapest and the Hungarian-Romanian border. Much dispute historically had been over the influence and even the claim of Hungary on Romania's Western territory. Religion weighed heavily into this debate. Hungary's predominate Roman Catholic hierarchy held great influence over Western Romania and was party to much conflict with the Orthodox congregations to the East. One might say that due to this influence, Romania was divided into thirds.

"The Lord one evening, told me to leave the hotel where I was lodging and go and stand on a street corner several blocks away. (I was in Romania for one purpose: to learn to follow intricately and completely, the prompting of the Spirit.) I stood obediently in the evening air as dusk began to descend, ushering in cooler breezes for the night. I prayed and asked the Lord His purpose for my being there. Within moments, a black limousine pulled to halt for the stop sign in front of me. Inside were several men, but in the front passenger seat I could see a Roman Catholic Cardinal. A prophetic witness rose up inside me, and I began pronouncing things over that Cardinal…things I knew nothing about, but not good things. Things he must repent of, things he must abdicate, turn away from, dispel, correct, all of which was based on pain of judgment. One can imagine, as our eyes met in that brief moment before he sped away, what indecipherable communication transpired. I thought, 'Dear Lord, I am glad I am not him.' The Spirit said, 'I wanted that spoken on the earth. I used you to speak it.'"

If one is to be used of the Lord, it is necessary sometimes to speak the whole counsel of God.

Acts 20:27 "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God".

Sometimes one is recruited as a parallel to the "Watchers and Holy Ones" cited in Daniel 4. In recent years, I have been seriously drawn to Daniel's overseers, who gave him answers from heaven. Translators have substituted "angels," "saints," and other phenomena seeking to interpret these "watchers." Some were completely in error.

Study of the word "watcher" (1) brings to the front two things: first, the word used in Daniel is an Aramaic form (after all he was living in Babylon) and is not used elsewhere in Scripture; second, these "watchers" occupy a position of power similar to the power given to the disciples and subsequently to all saints in, "whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." I am almost sure the reference in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus admonished his disciples to "watch and pray," and again, "could you not watch one hour (Matt. 26:40)," were references to the duties of Daniel's "watchers."

(To understand more of this work, further investigation must be made.)

First, it will be necessary to scrutinize the "watchers" passages in Daniel. Daniel was well established as a man of God, and when Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had a disturbing dream, he brought it to his chancellor.

"But at last Daniel came before me (his name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god; in him is the Spirit of the Holy God, and I told the dream before him, saying: 'Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream…'" Daniel 4:8, 9 NKJV

Establish this: Daniel was a man the Spirit indwelled. To be used as an earthly watcher, such is an imperative. Nebuchadnezzar, in relating his dream, saw the following:

"I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven, He cried aloud and said thus: 'Chop down the tree and cut off its branches… (4:13)'"

Further in this passage, which sealed Nebuchadnezzar to a seven year period of madness, the king stated:

"This decision is by the decree of the watchers and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men." (4:17)

Daniel corroborated Nebuchadnezzar's vision as a judgment passed down from heaven's holy ones and verbalized by the "watchers."

In Daniel 4:23 it said:

Inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven saying, 'Chop down the tree and destroy it…'

In this passage, Daniel used the term "holy one" as an adjective describing the "watcher." Nebuchadnezzar, however, described them using the plural form, "by the decree of the watchers." He also used the plural for the "holy ones" (4:17). Earlier, in 4:13, Nebuchadnezzar used the singular form of "watcher" in conjunction with a "holy one." Personally, I think both accounts were true. I believe one "watcher" pronounced the sentence of the "holy ones" and was spokesperson for other "watchers."

Aside from this, certain facts are posited. First, there is a group in heaven who pronounce sentences of judgment upon the earth. They are holy ones. Second, there are "watchers" in heaven who introduce these sentences to the earth in verbal form. They seal to earth the things of heaven. They may or may not be angels; certainly, they are "holy."

In the Last Days, on the earth, God will again establish judges. They will act just as these "watchers" of Daniel. They will pass down sentences upon those to be judged. They will be "holy." They will have duties like the "watchers" of heaven: to observe, stay alert spiritually and discern End-Time events. They will verbalize their judgments, in order for their words, which are alive, to come to pass. They will speak under the authority of heaven, and they will bind and loose both places.

I believe these folk are alive and well on planet earth today and much of what is taking place worldwide is the result of their activity. I believe that just as God never wished to establish kings for Israel, He is returning His Judges to the earth in preparation for His Son's return, and they are to be well acquainted with End-Time activities in order to be proficient in the general judgment given to the "saints."

In Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar understood that it was God who established and disestablished authority on the earth. One statement: 'He set over it to the lowest of men,' corresponds to giving the kingdom to the same. Many people walking around today, who think of themselves in low esteem as to their effect on the earth, are about to wake up and find they are judges. They have not been "watchers" and "holy ones" in vain. They know that down inside them a wellspring comes up when the atrocities of these times bubble up like a cauldron; they know they are to speak things over that mixture. They know what to speak.

Down inside, they know that they know about some spiritual matters no one else knows about, and they reverence the Most High and seek to speak what the Spirit would have them speak upon the earth.

They know what it is to fulfill this passage in Psalms 149:5-9:

"5 Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand,
7 To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;
8 To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute on them the written judgment-- This honor have all His saints." NKJV

Alas, the vast majority of church going, Bible thumping pew sitters haven't a clue, neither do most of the cloistered, separated fellowships. They do not understand what this is about. There is work to be done; there are things the Spirit wants spoken in the earth that will never be print media for email or bragging points at some convention.

(My God, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me…) Listen, I know what it is to stand on my porch in Galveston, Texas, and pronounce judgment to the north and see 32 people arrested or fired inside city hall for bilking taxpayers and stealing from the municipality. Listen, I know what it is to abide under the power of the Spirit and be lifted up and brought up and float over a city like riding in a hot air balloon. I know what it is to be shown inside houses and commercial buildings and see what people are up to inside. Listen, I know what it is to weep for hours, broken by what I saw.

My God, I know what it is to build an altar on a mountain and look down over a city and weep when I had to pronounce Fire, Wind and Earthquake upon it, then to be instructed to warn no one. I know what it is to languish while unable to do little more than speak a few cursory words to a congregation or two, THEN, to see it happen in rapid order just as I had spoken. Listen, there's more to this than a glance. Listen, this is Joseph time!

Ps 105:17-22:
"7 He sent a man before them-- Joseph--who was sold as a slave. 18 They hurt his feet with fetters, He was laid in irons. 19 Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the LORD tested him. 20 The king sent and released him, The ruler of the people let him go free. 21 He made him lord of his house, And ruler of all his possessions, 22 To bind his princes at his pleasure, And teach his elders wisdom." NKJV

Listen! I know what it is like to have been submerged in study about the "seal" of God in history and time and behold the unity of Scripture in this genre. Just one perusal of the preceding verse will speak, even to a fool, that God has His people stationed and ready.

(Prophetically, I speak : "breaking forth….break forth….break forth."

"He would does His will in the army of heaven (Daniel 4:35)" is breaking forth with His will in the hearts of his earthly "watchers" and "holy ones."

Two kinds of Binding and Loosing are mentioned in Matthew. In Matthew 16:18-19, there is the binding based on revelation from "nonflesh sources." Read it!

"18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Papal succession has nothing to do with this verse. It is the rock of revelation by which Jesus builds His church.

In Matthew 18:17-20, there is binding and loosing related to the church. (Jesus' being in the midst is an important ingredient to this work.)

"But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. 18 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." NKJV

Consider the machinations of the early apostles: how Peter ministered judgment to Ananias and Sapphira and to Simon the Sorcerer.

Acts 5:3-5 "'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.' 5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last."

Acts 8:20-24 Peter said to him,

"'Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! 21 You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. 22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.'"

Consider Paul's treatment of Elymas and the coppersmith:

Acts 13:9-12 "Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, 'O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.'And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed."

2 Tim 4:14-15 "Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. 15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words".

Consider Paul's admonition to the Corinthians:

1 Cor. 5:2 "And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old."

My God, there is work to be done. The laborers are absolutely few. They will not be garnered by finding one's ministry in "The purpose driven" bunch, but will be positioned by the Spirit! I can hardly wait for the results of the decrees of the "Watchers and the Holy Ones." Somewhere, right now, welling up in some heart of this vast worldwide readership are words that must be spoken into the earth…some of those words will be saying, "Even as you said Lord, so be it." (Jeremiah 11:5 and I Chronicles 17:23).

(1) OT: 5894 `iyr (Aramaic) (eer); from a root corresponding to OT: 5782; a watcher, i.e. an angel (as guardian): KJV - watcher. OT: 5782 uwr (oor); a primitive root [rather identical with OT: 5783 through the idea of opening the eyes]; to wake (literally or figuratively):KJV - (awake, raise (up), stir up (self). (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators,)

Until Next month,

Dr. Cosby R. Oliver, PhD.

MINISTRY CONTACT INFORMATION!

          Zadok Publications
          P.O. Box 132874
          The Woodlands, Texas 77393

          (936) 230-3543

          Email: zadokbookstore@zadokpublications.com
          On The Web: ZadokPublications.com