EZEKIEL 3:18
[MKJV] — When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die;” and you do not give him warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked one shall die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand.- [Ezekiel 3:18]
[GNB] — If I announce that someone evil is going to die but you do not warn him to change his ways so that he can save his life, he will die, still a sinner, but I will hold you responsible for his death. - [Ezekiel 3:18]
In this bible verse, God unveiled a new act of murdering a man or a new act of being guilty for a man’s death, even without having any connection/contact with what killed the man. If you come deeper into the Judgment of God, you will realize that what you are not doing have ways of implicating or indicting you with what you never imagined you ever did. For example, the fact you are not with the Lord Jesus Christ makes you against the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact you are not gathering people with Him makes you guilty of scattering people or chasing people away from Him. As it is written,
"Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering. -- [Luke 11:23 GNB]
A new act of being guilty for sinners’ who died and went into hell fire is that you saw and knew they were headed there but you never warned them to repent and embrace salvation.
It is not the person who tells a wicked man, “You will die for your wickedness” that is actually cursing or doing damage to that wicked man; rather it is the person who is not telling the wicked man “You will die for your wickedness” that is actually doing him damage.
Therefore, it is a gospel (good news) to tell a wicked man or sinner, you shall surely die and end in hell fire. It is neither a bad news nor is it a message of doom, but a good news or gospel. It only becomes a bad news if it actually happens, but it is good news if you warned about it or announced it before it actually happened. You must forewarn people.
Every true proclamation, prophecy, preaching or teaching, is good news; but not every fulfilling of such prophecies/proclamation is good news. Knowledge of good and evil is good, because knowledge of good is as good as knowledge of evil too. It is the fulfilling of evil that is bad news, not the knowledge of evil.
Where it becomes curse or evil to whoever is telling a wicked man, “You shall surely die” is when that person saying it is also wishing it for the wicked to truly die. The difference is in meaning it without wishing it, even while saying it. The purpose and goal is to save that life of the wicked man from the death through the wicked man’s realization and repentance.
This is the realization: “The sin or iniquity of the wicked man consumes his life, and for him to die in his sin, iniquity or wickedness with no repenting from it meant he has no life or salvation of life. Even if the man hates to do righteousness and mercy, he should atleast not hate his own life to realize the implications of what he does not just to other people but also to himself and his soul. If he is too selfish to reconsider his ways and impacts upon other people, being selfish still has ways to keeping a man safe to preserving of his own life when he perceives the danger and threat to his own life. Atleast, being selfish can still get him to flee for his life and deliver self from death and hell.
YOU MINISTERS OF GOD:
Stop being a “Wisher” and become a “Watcher:” A Watchman has no business wishing for the people, but his/her business is in watching for the people. Your messages should have nothing to do with what you “Wish” but to do with what you have “Seen and heard while watching.”
Many pastors and preachers have taken after the wishing in “3 John 1:2” wishing prosperity above all things; and their messages and prayers have only being expressions of their wishes for people under the sound of their voices. That appears helpful to the people.
However, the people needs pastors and priests who are watchful, more than those who are wishful. The Blind leaders of the blind are full of wishes too, but they are not watchful while they lead the blind into ditches inspite of wishes.
Why Watchman is More than Prophet
If God had spoken to the wicked, saying to him/her, "You shall surely die!' why would there still be need for a watchman to give the "Warning of Salvation" to that wicked man?
In the Bible verse above, when God says to the wicked, "You shall surely die" or "Your death is inevitable:" There are yet "three Grace" in this Word of God for that wicked man or sinner:
*1* The Grace of "Not being the Final Hearing;"
*2* The Grace of "Not being the Final Saying;"
*3* The Grace of "Time."
The essence of the first grace (Grace of that Word not being the final hearing from the Mouth of God) is to ensure there is a watchman, a witness, a messenger or an interpreter, between God and that wicked man or sinner. Since God chose to be invisible to the world of wicked men, the authentication of the wicked men hearing from God will be by hearing them hearing from God's Watchmen. Thus, their hearing depends on watchmen.
[Romans 10:14-15] — "...and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?..."
The essence of the second grace (Grace of that Word not being the final saying from the Mouth of God) is to ensure that even though God always has the final say, not every word of God should be the final say. There are some Words of God that should not be the final say: This will help us differentiate between "The Prophets of God" and "The Watchmen or the Watchful Intercessors." Thus, to defeat or overthrow even such saying of God that favors death or destruction of the wicked.
[Matthew 9:13] — "But go you and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
The essence of the third grace (Grace of time) is to ensure that wicked or sinner hears the message or warning of salvation on time before his/her death or destruction. That time between, when he/she heard and the day of death, is the time of grace or time of salvation through repentance.
To differentiate between "A Prophet" and "A Watchman:"
A "Watchman" is both a prophet and more than a prophet, like John the Baptist. As it is written,
[Luke 7:26-27] — "But what went you out for to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and much more than a prophet. This is he, of whom it is written, "Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, which shall prepare Your way before You."
That's what a Watchman does, preparing the Lord's Way before Him. Between God and men who should direct the way of the other? God is He that should direct the way for men to follow. But Watchmen have ways of preparing the way of the Lord God, and influencing the direction of the Lord would have taken for destroying people into a different direction (of sparing/saving them as) the Watchmen wanted God to take. You should be able to figure out men of God and women of God who redirected God from imminently destroying people, by the watchmen being both proactive and preemptive. A woman like Zipporah, who preempted and aborted the Lord God's intents and move to kill Moses; a man like Moses, who preempted and aborted the Lord God's intents and move to destroy all children of Israel and to rebuild the children of Moses as God's chosen people; a man like Phinehas, who stopped already move of the Lord God's destruction among Israelites who had committed fornication or had sexual intercourse, to the degree that both Moses intercession/prayers and Aaron as high priest intercession with his censer and offering of incense could not prevent the anger and destruction of God that was killing thousands per hour; until Phinehas used spear to pin a man that was having sex in fornication with a strange woman, pinning both the man and woman into the ground while they were having sex. That act of Phinehas stopped the wrath of God and the destruction of Israel stopped: Therefore, Phinehas was automatically made or appointed "An Everlasting Priest" in the eternal kingdom of God far greater than the high priesthood of Aaron.
In "Revelation 5" the twenty four elders testified that the Lamb (Jesus Christ) was first slain and through His Blood He has made us Kings and Priests to God in the everlasting Kingdom of God. But there was one man who did not have to wait for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ before he was guaranteed the kingship and priesthood inside heaven — That was Phinehas.
You see, if I continue list other examples of watchers or watch men or women who influenced or changed the path or course of God, this writing would be more voluminous. So here is simple difference between a prophet and a watchman.
A prophet is in the business of promoting the fulfilment of all the Words of God spoken by the prophet: He declares whatever God says and the words of the prophet comes to pass whether they are good news or calamity: just let not a word of the prophet fail.
In contrast, a watchman is in the business of preventing the fulfilment of the destructive Words of God spoken by the watchman: He declares whatever God says and the words of the watchman is supposed to generate "Repentance/Reformation" and not "Fulfilling of Prophecies" as those of prophets.
Sometimes, it may seem a watchman is a false prophet because his prophecy did not later happen; but if his prophecy generated repentance, correction or made God to change His mind from what God earlier told the watchman, then spiritually that watchman has achieved far greater success than what the world celebrate as a prophet who's words always come to pass.
Another difference between a prophet and a watchman sometimes is that: A prophet knows that when he speaks God's Words to those they are sent those words must happen, but a watchman knows that when he speaks God's Words to those they are sent those words may not happen, usually because those people believe him, received his warning, and repented or obeyed by faith
So because a watchman feels if I say it or preach it, people will know and repent which prevents their destruction and death; so sometimes a watchman may want to avoid warning or teaching people so that they would keep heading their way into the pit of destruction. However, God will require the blood of those they refused to warn from the hands of the watchmen who refused to warn them. So the reason a watchman is more than a prophet is because the watchman carries more responsibility than a prophet.
Like Jonah and Nineveh he hated: Ninevites were enemies to Jonah and Jonah was made by God a watchman over his enemies. If Jonah warns them of God's destruction that was coming in 40 days like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, they will repent and then the destruction will not have to be. Jonah wanted them to be destroyed, and so he would not prophesy or warn them. He was traveling to Tarshish when God began to require the blood of the Ninevites at Jonah's hand. Thank God they were not destroyed yet and Jonah experienced hell in the belly of the whale that swallowed him, and he had the grace of 40 days before the destruction of the same Nineveh would seal up his own destruction for not warning them as God sent him to be their watcher.
John the Baptist, would you not warn the Pharisees and Church Pastors of your time to repent and flee from the wrath to come?
[Matthew 3:7-10 FBV] — But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he said to them, “You vipers' brood! Who warned you to run away from the coming judgment? Show by what you do that you have truly repented, and don't presume to say proudly to yourselves, ‘Abraham is our father.’ I tell you that God could make children of Abraham from these stones. In fact the ax is ready to chop down the trees. Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.