NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE: week beginning Sunday October 15th 2006
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
First of all a reminder that last week we noted that the Midnight Watch properly begins at 9:00pm and goes to the middle of the night, specifically, 12 o'clock. So strictly speaking the Night watch is from 9pm until 6am. So from now on, we are aiming to find an hour to watch each week between 9pm and 6am. Thanks for the positive feedback on this!
As most of us regular watchers are by now aware, last weekend, Steve Lowton and a small team of intercessors continued their walk from Athens to Istanbul, as they roll back the empire spirit through prayer and prophetic action. They began last year from Whitby in the North East of England to Rome, following the route along which much of the invasion of the empire spirit into the European Church and continent spread. They will take 40 days for this walk, and during the remaining four weeks we will continue to allow the Holy Spirit to shape our watch to follow their initiative.
The first of Steve reports is now available and many of you will have received it. This week we will begin to pray into some of the points raised there by Steve.
It may be that some more 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
The Nightwatch prayer and training event for the weekend of Jan 19th -21st 2007 is now fully booked. If anyone is interested in a follow up event, possibly in Brussels later in 2007 please let us know.
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.
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. We are looking to carry on for another two years, 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 15th 2006
1. TAKE 12 MINUTES TO READ, REFLECT, PRAY AND GIVE THANKS OVER HEBREWS CH 13:5-6
“Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for he himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.’ So that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’”
2. TAKE 12 MINUTES TO RESIST THE DEVIL AWAY FROM YOUR SPIRIT, SOUL, BODY, LOVED ONES, YOUR ROOM, HOME, STREET, VILLAGE OR TOWN, REGION AND NATION
Then begin to resist the devil away from Steve Lowton, his family and the team that is walking with him, as the Lord leads you and gives you freedom.
NB Don’t forget that you are perfectly safe resisting the devil like this as long as you are keeping in unity and not continuing in any known sin, particularly relating to unforgiveness or bad attitudes towards anyone!
3. TAKE 36 MINUTES AND PRAY OVER THESE POINTS FROM THE LATEST UPDATE FROM STEVE LOWTON AND THE TEAM
(i) We walk because of our love of the Lord and our love of the land. We also walk knowing that none of us are right, especially me!
Backdrop: we arrived in Athens to the backdrop of a meal in an Israeli owned restaurant with a Palestinian cook. A few minutes later we find ourselves just 200m up the road at a pro-Palestinian demonstration, immediately preceding a pro-Israel conference hosted by some wonderfully good hearted Kingdom people, generous in every way but with what were to me were some scary aspects to their theology. This whole scenario to me was a cameo of all that we are walking into. (12 minutes)
(ii) So Rome to Istanbul … today I realised that it will be around 39/40 days of actual walking from when we left Rome to when we arrive in Istanbul. So we are tracking from the gateway of Christendom to what would be perceived by most Europeans as the gateway into Islam, even though Turkey is a secular state. In other words we have an overlay to all that is unfolding in Israel and Palestine at this time, with, some would say, Christendom and aspects of, Christian Zionism rising to one side and Islam to the other. A gross over simplification I know but with some weight I do believe. How do we walk, even if we disagree violently with the above? We walk as those without shoes, for to take off your shoes, or more specifically your right shoe in the Old Testament could be said to be a denial of the right of ownership (see the narrative of Ruth and Boaz: Ruth 4:1-11). 12 minutes)
(iii) From Athens to Constantinople/Istanbul, the two names for the one ancient city. As I have already said it is forty days exactly from when we landed in Athens to when we leave Istanbul. I am also realising the obvious, that this 40 day period marks out the extent of the original Byzantine Empire, that had its focus on Constantinople, extending from Athens through to Istanbul, as we know it now. So when we cross the border into Turkey we stay with the same issues that we are tracking with now all the way through to that huge gateway city; for an end to dualism and all issues of Empire within the church. There is a lining up here that I am looking for an alignment that perhaps my badly aligned back is speaking of! So we walk. (12 minutes)
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP IN THIS WATCH,
