NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE week beginning Sunday August 17th 2008
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
This week Martin Scott has been with us in the Friary here in Silverdale for a few days. Yesterday while we were praying he suddenly declared “from a house a continent can be changed and from a bedroom you can change a nation.” It made me think of the work of this watch. Perhaps it is particularly a word for you as you continue in prayer!
Thanks for working with the Isaiah 55 material and for all your positive feedback. This week we will pick up two further promises from the chapter that have been very important in my own life and are available to us all as we persevere with our work for the continent. Then we will give time to pray for two coming intercessory events and finally look at some preparatory prophetic material relevant to the coming transition of the watch.
For those of you who are still praying about coming to the Nightwatch transition event in Majorca, September 26th-28th 2008, please note that although the final date for the agreed hotel prices has now past, it is still possible to register at a slightly higher price. We are looking for a Christ-picked company of up to forty people and there are still a few spaces left. Full details of the event are found at the end of this week’s guidelines.
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 until the transition event of September 26th-28th 2008 in Majorca. After this we expect to move to a different form of intercessory support.
THE CONTENT OF THE WATCH FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING SUNDAY AUGUST 17th 2008
1. TWO KEY PROMISES FROM ISAIAH 55 (20 minutes)
i) "Incline your ear and come to me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation which knows you not will run to you, because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you." (Isa 55:3-5)
Note that the Lord is looking for a David-like company to be a witness, leader and commander for the people. David was marked by his humility, devotion, friendship and courage. He was fearlessly seeking God’s kingdom, not his own. When he fell he was willing to admit it and repent. This is what the Holy Spirit is seeking to develop in our continent. But remember it is David as understood through the incarnation of Jesus, where leadership is corporate, among not over the people and where the satanic strongholds of personal power, vain glory and the pursuit of money are utterly repudiated. (10 minutes)
ii) "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” (Isa 55:10-11)
Note the extraordinary power of God’s word. Isaiah was God’s mouthpiece and so are we. We can bring about change inevitably by the appropriate use of words. Pray for God’s word to be in our mouth, for discernment over what to speak and when to speak. God’s word is not only about communication but also about declaration. Pray for understanding of the importance of coming in the opposite spirit to the domination system of this world. Remember that the letter kills but the spirit gives life (2 Cor3:6). Love does not insist on its own way (I Cor13:5). (10 minutes)
2. COMING EVENTS (10 minutes)
i) Fire in the Isles, St. Helier, Jersey, the Channel Islands 17th-23rd August 2008
“This is an international conference organised by Ruach Ministries and the Jersey Evangelical Alliance being held on the Island of Jersey in the Channel Islands. Our aim is to draw people together to pray and seek God for an outpouring of His Holy Spirit in Jersey and on outwards into the UK and Europe.”
ii) Pray North, Eckernförde, Schleswig Holstein, Northern Germany 28th-31st August
“Pray North is an extraordinary conference focussing on the spiritual destiny of the Northern People. We believe we have a common heritage - the Viking's heritage. It is not just a natural heritage, but a spiritual one as well, which the Vikings never discovered for themselves. The conference aims to help “unearth” this spiritual heritage. The conference will be located in the close vicinity of the old Viking capital Haitabu, a place of present archaeological interest, which will inspire our spiritual ‘excavations’. We are looking forward to seeing God's people in the North rise in strength and boldness.”
Pray North is organised by the Evangelische Freikirche, Eckernförde, Germany
3. EMBRACING THE FULNESS OF 2008 AND PREPARING FOR 2009 (20 minutes)
As some of you have already read, this summer my wife Sue made the following prophetic statement, please pray and reflect over it (15 minutes):
“I am convinced that 2008 is the year of the most immense transition any of us have dreamed of. A gate of supernatural intervention is again opened in Florida and not a few other places with marvellous signs of healings and miracles, including resurrections. Certainly God is not holding back at this time. But a gate of extreme change is also open and will demand a different but equally supernatural involvement. The run on an English bank, a global credit crunch, the first summer in which the arctic ice may completely melt, these are equally signs among many others coming to a level that cannot be ignored or denied that ‘the world is changing’ and we cannot now hold it back. 2008 is the beginning of something socially and culturally different and is the day of transition for us to step up to the calling of 2009. 9 is the number of maturity. And God the Trinity is looking to be multiplied by his own number on the earth. The nine listed gifts of the Spirit are 3 word gifts (tongues, interpretation of them and prophecy), three knowledge gifts (wisdom, knowledge and discernment) and finally three service gifts (faith, healings and miracles). If the service gifts are now clearly in the earth (and what else would we expect as the fullness of the three outpourings of the Spirit, faith being essential to offering cups of cold water and prison visits in Jesus’ name…), surely too will the fullness of the 9-fold fruits of the Spirit also be forming in us. The love, joy and peace we received from Christ should have developed into patience, kindness and goodness in our dealings with others, but the meekness, gentleness and long-suffering of the mature Church is now called for and the circumstances of life will prove (as in refine) them in us.”
4. PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THE COMING NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE TRANSITION EVENT IN MAJORCA SPAIN 26th-28th September 2008 (details below) (10 minutes)
We are looking for the following outcomes:
a) Generally to further the resurrection of the work of the kingdom of God in Europe
b) To spend time turning our hearts towards our catholic fathers and considering the implications and further action required
c) To pursue ways of furthering the repositioning of the church in the world
d) To pray over the need to shift the primary emphasis of intercession to theological reform
d) To pray over the practical transition of the Nightwatch in support of this
