Cover Me, I’m Going In

I must have watched too many Westerns as a child. I was having a very detailed dream, one so realistic my body and mouth were into it. My vigorous kicking and unintelligible mumblings awakened my wife, Ceci, who then awakened me.

“Are you okay? Are you dreaming?” she asked.

“Little Joe,” I mumbled, still half asleep.

“What? Did you say ‘Little Joe?’”

“Yeah. Little Joe Cartwright.” For those of you deprived of the experience, or too young to have been around, Little Joe (played by the late Michael Landon) was one of the characters on the hit Western television series Bonanza.

“I dreamed I was Little Joe,” I repeated. “And I was fighting a big dude in a boxing match. I was terrified of him, so my strategy was to keep moving so fast he could not hit me,” thus the kicking.

Ceci, insensitive as she was, thought it was hilarious (that’s a joke). That is because she was not in the boxing ring with the man whose main goal was to beat her senseless. She still brings it up once in a while, especially when I am having a graphic dream. “Who are you this time?” She chuckles. “Muhammad Ali?”

An often-used expression in Westerns was “Cover me.” This, of course, was said by those who were running into the open during gun battles. They wanted enough gunfire aimed toward the enemy to prevent him from successfully firing upon them. “Little Joe said it several times.” We must also cover each other, not with guns, but with prayer.

Let’s consider a few definitions of watchman that will enable us to provide effective prayer coverage.

“Protect” or “protector” are translations of the Hebrew words for “watchman.” Psalm 121:5, 7-8 tells us, “The Lord is your keeper [shamar] . . .The Lord will protect [shamar] you from all evil; He will keep [shamar] your soul. The Lord will guard [shamar] your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.” Four times Holy Spirit uses this watchman word shamar to insure us of His protection. The English word protect comes from two Latin words: pro, meaning “before,” and tego, meaning “to cover; to cover or shield from danger or injury.” One of the ways this protection comes is through the watchman anointing. Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock share the following two testimonies of prayer coverage in their book A Woman’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare:

Janet’s six-year-old son, Kevin, came in from school one day with a 

defiant, sassy attitude. 

“What did you do in school today, son?” Janet asked, puzzled by his mood.

“Played with a crystal ball the teacher brought. We asked it all kinds of questions,” he answered.

“Lord, what shall I do about this?” Janet, a new Christian, prayed silently. From deep within she heard, Break the witchcraft and curses that come with it.

“Kevin, come sit on my lap for a minute,” she said, still asking the Lord how to follow the directions she’d just received. She gave Kevin a big hug as he climbed on her lap. Surprised, she heard herself saying, “Father, in the name of Jesus I break the power of witchcraft and curses, and I take back from the enemy the ground he has stolen from my son. We give that ground back to You, Lord. Thank you for your protection and your blessing upon Kevin.”

After prayer, Kevin immediately changed back to her happy, sweet-natured kid. “That was my introduction to dealing with invisible evil forces,” Janet said. “In a nutshell, I quickly learned about spiritual warfare, and I’m still using it for both of my children.”

Kevin is now grown and drives a huge cattle transport trailer truck across the country. One night Janet woke up four times, and each time she “saw” a truck going off the road. The truck was the eighteen-wheeler Kevin was driving.

“I began binding the spirits of death and calamity, then I asked the Lord to send angels to keep my son’s truck on the road. I did it four times that night,” she remembers.

“At dawn, Kevin called to say, ‘Mom, I’m back in town, but I’m too tired to drive home. Four times last night my truck almost went off the road. Were you praying?’”

Janet fulfilled the role of a watchman as she covered her son from the evils of witchcraft and from physical harm. She was a protector – a role that is possible for each of us if we allow Holy Spirit to help us walk in this anointing.

“Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.”

(Psalm 91:9-11 NKJV)

Pray with me:

Thank you, Father, for teaching us to cover our families and those You have assigned to us. We refuse to allow satan to steal, kill, and destroy that which belongs to us. We rise up in Your anointing and authority and bind every attempt he makes to do so. We will live in the secret place of the Most High God and remain protected there. No evil will befall us and no plague will come near our dwelling.

Make very real and strong in us the revelation that we can and must live this prayer responsibility. Father, I don’t want Your people to lose by default, by ignorance. I want them to know they need to do this, and I want them to absolutely know they can. They are more than conquerors when they simply do as instructed. Give them greater and greater revelation of this.

We decree over our children that they are blessed and protected. We decree over our homes that they are blessed and protected. We decree over our finances that they are blessed and protected. We decree over all of our possessions that they are blessed and protected. And, yes, we decree over this nation that it is blessed and protected. We continue to cover America with our prayers, decreeing that the ungodly in positions of authority will be removed and their evil works will be exposed. The darkness will be eliminated from government in America. Amen.

Our decree:

We decree that we and our families live under the protective covering of the blood of Jesus!