Watcher angels

Occasionally I have sensed an angel standing near to me in a church service. But a while ago I saw a spirit-being with my natural eye walk down the stairs of a house I was staying in. It was a shadowy figure which had the outline of a human being. I assumed it was a demon. A couple of others in the house saw it also. No big deal.

Months later I was in a homegroup with a prophetic minister in the States and she told us that she had seen exactly the same thing in her house, but that the Lord had revealed to her that they were ‘watchers’.

I'd never heard of these before. Yet watchers appear to be a certain class of angel. They are mentioned in the book of Daniel.

In Daniel 4, king Nebuchadnezzar tells Daniel about a dream. The king had seen "a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven." This "watcher" had proclaimed "a decision" that had been made:

Daniel 4:17: "This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men."

Daniel interprets the dream to the king, explaining to him that because of his pride, he will have to live for seven years with the animals.

The passage suggests that watchers carry some authority.

Watchers are also mentioned in the Book of Enoch as a group of angels that God had commissioned to watch over the earth. The Book then goes onto say that 200 of them fell and rebelled against God.

Outside the Book Enoch, there are scant other references to this class of angel.

So I believe that I may well have seen a watcher angel. Why the Lord opened my eyes to this I have yet to find out.