NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE week beginning Sunday 14th October 2007
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
As I prepare the material for this week’s watch I am looking out over the Indian Ocean from the western coast of Sri Lanka where Sue and I have come to help a wonderful national movement of women intercessors that God has called together from across the nine provinces of the island to resist the devil, pray for reconciliation between the Tamil and Singhalese nations and the realisation of the fullness of God’s plan for the island to be a sign of peace and a new day for the body of Christ in the earth. It is such a privilege to play our part in turning back the mixture of gospel and empire that the church of Europe, in this case first the Portuguese and the Dutch and then particularly the British, brought to the world through their colonial missions. As the Lord has led us we have been using Psalm 29 to pray for the resurrection of the Sri Lankan church and nation, and this week I suggest that we use it to pray for the church in Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain as well as the rest of Europe as the Lord leads.
By the way, any of you who live within reach of the Alsace region might be interested to know that the whole Nightwatch team will be in Guebwiler for the weekend of November 9 -11th, a weekend that coincides with the one remaining year of this watch. Details from david@leighweb.com
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 9pm 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. This Nightwatch began in November 2003 and we are looking to carry on for one more year, 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 14th OCTOBER 2007
1. BEGIN BY DECLARING PSALM 29 OUT LOUD, FIRST OVER PORTUGAL THEN THE NETHERLANDS AND BRITAIN, AND ANY OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE YOU CAN IN THE TIME YOU HAVE (10 minutes)
“A Psalm of David: Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in holy array. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders, The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve and strips the forests bare; and in His temple everything says, "Glory!" The Lord sat as king at the flood; yes, the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to his people; The Lord will bless his people with peace.”
2. NOW BEGIN TO SPEAK TO THE ANGELS TO CONNECT TO A RISING GENERATION OF YOUNG MEN IN THOSE NATIONS (15 minutes)
Notice that David is calling for ‘the sons of the mighty’ (v1), and this can refer to the Lord’s mighty sons as in those young men who trust in his strength, but also that the phrase ‘sons of God’, which it can also be translated as, refers to the angels. What is for sure is that we need a new generation of young men who will discover the power of the angels to assist them in the work of God’s kingdom by restoring the destiny of a lost generation stumbled by the fathers. Pray for the angels to connect to the young men of these three nations. Pray by name for the potentially mighty young men in your nation and call on the angels to strengthen them. (You may find help from Hebrews 1:13-14; Malachi 4:5-6; and Matthew 18:10)
3. PRAY FOR A SPIRITUAL ARMY TO RISE UP IN THE LORD’S NAME THAT WILL BE PEACEMAKERS IN EUROPE AND TO THE WORLD BEYOND (10 minutes)
Notice that David calls for glory to be given to the Lord’s name and for the Lord to be worshipped in military order (this is the meaning of the words ‘holy array’ v2). Pray for a revelation of the Lord’s name and character, for the realisation that the Father Jesus shows us is the eternally loving God who has loved us just as the Father loved him from before the world was made (see Jesus’ words in John 17:22-26). Pray too for a spiritual army of worshippers to rise up and release a stream of love back to God and from God to the stumbled, the poor, the broken, the sinners and the lost across Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain (you may find help from Psalm 8:2; 148:14; 149:6).
4. USE THE FOLLOWING FIVE DECLARATIONS OF THE VOICE OF THE LORD TO PUSH HOME YOUR PRAYERS. (25 minutes)
i) “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders, The Lord is over many waters” (v3).
Remember that when fresh revelation about Jesus came in John12:28-30 and in Revelation 10:3-4, it was like thunder. Pray for and declare a fresh revelation of Jesus to his people in Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain and throughout any other European nation that the Lord especially lays on your heart. Notice that the voice on the waters spoke of the power and majesty of the Lord. Pray for new understanding of how different the Lord’s power and majesty is from the domination and rule of the prince of this world. (5 minutes)
ii) “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf and Sirion like a young wild ox” (vv5-6).
In the scriptures the cedars often refer to things that are lifted up, high and lofty. Sometimes they refer to faithful spiritual leaders. However when the church has become an established institution faithfulness can become stubbornness and resistance to change. Only the voice of the Lord can break mindsets and shift those resistant to necessary change. Pray for the voice of the Lord to break the cedars and release the necessary wildness of a new day. (5 minutes)
iii) “The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire” (v7).
An alternative reading for flames of fire is the lightning’s flash. Pray for the voice of the Lord to come connecting heaven and earth through his people wherever they are – in the homes, streets, businesses, schools, workplaces and governments of Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain and wherever else the Lord leads you to pray for in Europe. Be specific and pray for those people known to you that God has placed strategically to bring his living voice and presence. (5 minutes)
iv) “The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.”
Notice that the wilderness is where the Spirit led the Lord to resist the devil and that Kadesh Barnea was the place where the Israelites were afraid of the giants and failed to enter the land. Stand with the intercessors in Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain to follow the Spirit of Jesus into warfare against the demonic strongholds in their nations. Pray for them to be strengthened in God to resist all fear; both their own and other Christians’ who try to deter them. Pray for them to understand that if they are walking in the Lord’s forgiveness to them and theirs towards all others then they need have no fear whatever of the devil and can and should overcome him. (5 minutes)
