NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE: week beginning Sunday October 1st 2006
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
Those of you who have been following our watch from the beginning will know that part of Europe’s calling, and therefore its church’s calling at this time, is to identify and overcome the empire spirit that invaded the church here. It is our conviction that this spirit not only invaded the church, but still occupies it. As a result the church itself is one of the strongholds of empire, like the wooden horse in the story of Troy. So as well as overcoming the empire spirit in the culture, politics and economics of Europe we have to deal with it within our own hearts, families and churches. This might seem an impossible task, but fortunately we have been given the cross of Christ, and the principle of intercession which is at its heart!
Beginning this weekend, Steve Lowton as part of the Sowing Seeds of Revival initiative, will be leading a small team of intercessors walking from Athens to Istanbul, whose purpose and desire is to roll back the empire spirit in prayer and prophetic action. Beginning last year from Whitby in the North East of England to Rome, and then on to Athens, they have been following the route along which much of the invasion of the empire spirit into the European Church and continent spread. They plan to take 40 days for this walk, and during the next six weeks we will allow the Holy Spirit to shape our watch to follow their initiative. This week and next we will pray through the main issues that will be their burden through their 40 days.
It may be that some of you will be moved to follow them even more closely in prayer, or even to join them. If so you can contact Steve by email: lowtonsteve@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks again for those of you who have booked into the Nightwatch prayer and training event for the weekend of Jan 19th -21st 2007 at Ashburnham Prayer and Conference Centre in East Sussex, England.
Please let us know immediately if you have not told us that you are planning to come.
If you know of anyone who would also like to receive this night watch prayer bulletin each week, they can subscribe by going to www.passion.org.uk/announcemail and submitting their details on the web form. Alternatively they can email us at admin@passion.org.uk
IF YOU ARE A REGULAR YOU CAN SKIP THE NEXT 2 PARAGRAPHS
If you are receiving this material unexpectedly it is because someone has suggested that you may be interested to join in. If you do not want to keep receiving it please inform us immediately and we will stop sending it to you. We want to let those of you who are newcomers know that we are very pleased to have your partnership in this watch. We are simply asking for a commitment of an hour a week some time between midnight and 6am whatever time zone you are in.
We will send you a brief outline for prayer each week according to the prophetic direction coming from the contemporary prophetic movement in Europe. You will not always agree with everything in the watch material. Go with what you can and trust the Lord to help you with the rest. We are looking to carry on for another two years and two months, while realising that some can’t commit right now for as long as that. We are pleased for you to enlist for as long as you can. If you have to miss an occasional watch it’s OK as the rest of us will carry it. A six-month commitment is probably a good start.
THE CONTENT OF THE WATCH FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING SUNDAY OCTOBER 1ST 2006
1. TAKE 10 MINUTES TO PRAY FOR THE ROLLING BACK OF THE EMPIRE SPIRIT FROM OUR CHURCH AND CONTINENT
In a few days time Steve Lowton will set off with a small team to pick up the walk through from Rome to Jerusalem. Three teams will be traveling out over the coming weeks beginning on September 29th and they will be aiming to walk through to Istanbul with a planned arrival date of November 7th.
Pray for revelation for them about how to pray. Pray for their team relationships to truly model the body of Christ. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give prophetic power to them, to us and to the forerunners in the continent, that we will see the empire spirit rolled back and that our lives will truly bring about a great change.
2. TAKE 10 MINUTES TO PRAY FOR THE TEAM OF WALKERS
Steve writes: “ Over the summer months I have had time to examine my own heart as I have begun to turn my face towards the almost exclusively Muslim Near East and Middle East. The hard truth is that since the invasion of Iraq the Christian community across this area has retreated almost entirely into Syria and Damascus. Other than the tiny community of believers in Turkey, nowhere else is feels safe, such has been the hardening of extremism that it would seem western foreign policy has helped to provoke. We will be walking without any illusions as to our own significance. We will have no Prime Ministers or Presidents with us. Our names are known to no one. However, we walk with a conviction that prayer can, and does, make a huge difference in this world.”
Pray for courage and faith for the team as they walk forwards to Istanbul in anticipation of the last leg of their walk on to Jerusalem. On too many occasions in history, the western world and its church has been identified with imperial power in its relationships with the Middle East and the Muslim world. Pray that this little team will be a true representation of ‘the stone uncut by any human hand’ that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream! (Dan2:34)
3. BELOW ARE SOME OF THE VALUES ON THE BASIS OF WHICH THEY WALK, AND WE INTERCEDE. TAKE 10 MINUTES TO PRAY OVER EACH ONE (40 MINUTES ALTOGETHER).
(I) We walk...
On the basis that no one is right; only God is right! So the Jews are not right; neither are we as followers of Jesus. The Muslims are not right, but the Lord is right. We walk with the shoes of Joshua 5v15: “The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, ‘Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” (10 minutes)
(ii) We walk…
Taking note of the deep tenderness of the Lord's heart towards the Jews,
the foundational part that they have played in redemption history, and the crucial part they have still to play. We are humbled and challenged by the
kindness of the Lord to both Jew and Gentile alike. (10 minutes)
(iii) We walk…
To repent for the fruit of Imperialism within the mindset of the western
church. At its hiatus this led to the persecution of both Muslims and Jews by the Church down through the generations, encapsulated in the Crusades. (10 minutes)
(iv) We walk…
To acknowledge the driving force of fear behind the spirit of empire, that ensnares Jew, Christian and Muslim alike.
To acknowledge that fear is the fuel of imperialism, and that racism towards Jew and Muslim alike goes hand in hand with imperial domination, whether from Rome, Zionism or Islam. (10 minutes)
