NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE week beginning Sunday May 18th 2008
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
I am preparing these guidelines in the Canada House of Prayer in Ottawa. Founded in 2005 this houses a community committed to facilitating ongoing prayer for the Canadian parliament. Last week I was at Ashburnham Prayer and Conference Centre in England that has begun the first stage of restructuring its life around 24 hour prayer. Over the last two weeks of this watch we have been reflecting on the importance of understanding the times we are in, rejoicing at healing signs but not being distracted from the primary purpose of the clear prophetic direction of God. So this week we will continue to pray into that direction as the Lord continues to lead us.
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 end of September 2008 after which there will be a transition into a different form of intercessory support. If you have to miss an occasional watch it’s OK as the rest of us will carry it. A three month commitment is probably a good place to start.
THE CONTENT OF THE WATCH FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING SUNDAY 18th MAY 2008
Last year we spent some time praying into a prophetic timescale for the work of God in the continent. We suggested that it would be helpful to understand our prophetic location since 1990, in two year blocks (from September to September, following the Jewish New Year, up until 2000:
Intense disturbance (1990-92)
Intense intercession (92-94)
Intervention (from the Lord to the church) (94-96)
Positioning (96-98)
Perseverance (1998-2000)
Then from 2000 onwards, in four year blocks in reverse
Perseverance (2000 - 2004)
Positioning (04-08)
Intervention (through the church into the world) (08-12)
Intercession (of the church for the world) (012-016)
Disturbance (in the world) (016-020)
This would lead us to expect a move this autumn from the repositioning of the church in the world to the intervention of the church in the world. This week’s guidelines proceed with this in view.
1. THE CANADA HOUSE OF PRAYER (10 minutes)
In many ways this initiative represents an exciting theological restoration in understanding the role of the church in the world. The work of this prayer house focuses specifically on the members and proceedings of the Canadian houses of parliament. Rather than trying to turn back the clock to re-establish a government biased to the preferences of Christians, this prayer house, while prayerfully supporting Christian MPs, recognises and prays into the responsibility of all politicians to work for peace and justice for all Canadians, whatever their background and allegiance. Pray our Canadian friends and for similar prayer initiatives to emerge in the countries of Europe, and especially Brussels.
2. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN PRAYER AND INTERCESSION (10 minutes)
We have been emphasising this distinction in recent weeks. Intercessors take their place in whatever situation the church needs to be but isn’t yet. They pray for the gaps to be filled, and sooner or later they themselves may find themselves the answer to those prayers. This is happening in two necessary ways at the moment, firstly relating the repositioning of the church in the world, especially among the poor and victims of prejudice and injustice and secondly relating to the need to reform our understanding of the nature of God and the church to reflect Christ and his kingdom where an empire or Babylonian understanding of the nature of God and the church prevails. Continue to pray for all of us intercessory forerunners to be ready for whatever these changes will mean for us in our daily lives.
3. FROM REPOSITIONING TO INTERVENTION (10 minutes)
It is likely that the current season of positioning is shifting to a season of intervention through the church into the world beginning with this autumn. Praise God that many Christian mercy initiatives are intervening in the world on behalf of the poor in reconciliation, mediation, education, emergency aid, and other forms of genuine empowerment. However we are moving towards the inevitable failure of global capitalism, which is fast heading for destruction and disaster on a world wide scale. This is going to require the church’s intervention at an unprecedented level in which the people of God positioned throughout the world system motivated by love, generosity and practical wisdom will be able to bring the kingdom of God to people in need and a society in increasing chaos.
4. POSSIBLE NIGHTWATCH TRANSITION EVENT (10 minutes)
This Nightwatch comes to an end in September this year, as the original 70 weeks, followed by 3½ years, comes to an end. As we have shared over the past months, the Nightwatch will give place to the Daywatch as the church takes its place more fully in the all the spheres of the world of contemporary Europe. When the Nightwatch team and friends met in France last November we sensed that we should mark the end and transition of the watch, by holding some kind of weekend event. This is scheduled for the September 26th-28th 2008. Please pray over what form this should take and where it should be located. WE NEED YOUR FEEDBACK ON THIS PLEASE.
5. PRAYER FOR THE BALTIC STATES (10 minutes)
A senior prayer facilitator in Latvia sent the following overview of the situation and urgent prayer need of the Baltic nations. Please pray over his plea for help.
“Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were savaged and devastated by the Soviet Union and before that by WWII, Germany and also America and the Allies, which supported the Soviet Union. We know well the willingness of others to sacrifice these small countries for the sake of their grand politics and comfort. An unspoken real issue is that Lithuania and Estonia, I believe, have made requests for compensation for the ecological and other havoc brought by the Soviet occupation, accepted and backed by the West, Churchill and Roosevelt, at Yalta. Latvia has discussed such a request.
Personally it seems that Germany, the Soviet Union and the West put the Baltic countries back in the Stone Age, so to speak, from which a serious portion of our land has NOT yet climbed out. In many ways many, comparatively, are still worse off than in pre WWII 1938.
Now with the manipulative and coercive energy politics that Russia is using to influence the EU, the Baltics are wise enough to understand the Western addiction to energy, how the EU and America are submitting to the Arab Oil/Energy pressures at the expense of Israel and other middle eastern nations, and that the EU on many issues will be sorely tempted to agree with Russia, at the expense of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Let it be known that Russia is still exerting efforts to Russify, and force Russian as a 2nd language on the Baltics, especially Latvia.
These are some of the reason why the Baltics can NOT afford to give the EU a blank check to negotiate what they want, because the common accord could well not be in the Baltic interest.
Prayer, calling out to God in all seriousness is an answer not grand politics.”
