NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE week beginning Sunday May 25th 2008
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
Last week’s watch finished with words from Latvia: “Prayer, calling out to God in all seriousness is an answer not grand politics.” These are wise words to keep in mind as we focus our prayers on the responsibility of the church to intervene in world affairs and look at the issues of climate change. We will also take time to pray for the Ashburnham prayer and Conference centre mentioned last week and continue to pray into the location and content of the Nightwatch transition event scheduled for September 26th-28th 2008.
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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 25th MAY 2008
1. INTERVENTION THROUGH THE CHURCH INTO THE WORLD 2008-12 (20 mins)
Last week we revisited the prophetic outline of the last ten and coming twenty years that we introduced last September. This suggests that we are approaching the transition from repositioning to intervention. Please pray into the following response to our prayers over this:
“It is interesting that the two interventions mentioned in the timeline provoke the Church in similar ways. Whether it is to be a move of God coming in like a large wave or a major upheaval in the world, the Body of Christ needs to have certain things in place. If we're rigid in our structure we'll break. If we're weak relationally we'll separate. If we're shallow in our root system, we'll be swept away. Whether it's for a coming move of the Spirit or for global chaos, the preparation is the same, at least at these fundamental levels. One picture that we've been mulling over recently here (in Alsace) is of the artificial harbours constructed by the Allies off the beaches of Arromanches in Normandy which facilitated the disembarkation and supply of the European allied forces just after D-Day. They were of massive concrete but floated and were attached to one another to form bridges, over which the heaviest of tanks and trucks could travel. My feeling is that the gloriously powerful moves of the Spirit (that often seem to disrupt ‘stable church life’) and the global natural, social, and economic upheaval will go hand-in-hand. They all become tools in God's hands to train, test, purify and deploy His Body in his Kingdom Project, and we need to prepare for a strong dose of all of them.”
2. THE DEFINING MOMENT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE (20 mins)
A watcher notes that the work of a serious Christian environmentalist places the major global consequences of climate change in the years from 2012 onwards, the years marked by intercession of the church for the world, and bringing cataclysmic consequences by 2016, the years that the prophetic timeline marks as years of disturbance. Let’s pray over her comments, and if possible pray into some of the detail of the article. Pray particularly that some of us intercessors will be shown how to intervene in practical ways and will have the courage to do so.
“I was fascinated in reviewing your timeline with respect to an article by Bill McKibben, a long-time Christian environmentalist, writer and leader attempting to bring about necessary change. I have never seen him so clear and so upset as in this article. Note the dates he sets out:
‘The Indian scientist and economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year, says that if there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment. In the next two or three years, the nations of the world are supposed to be negotiating a successor treaty to the Kyoto Accord. When December 2009 rolls around, heads of state are supposed to converge on Copenhagen to sign a treaty—a treaty that would go into effect at the last plausible moment to heed the most basic and crucial of limits on atmospheric CO2.’”
Further information on the critical issue of climate change that is the responsibility of God’s people to deal with as stewards of creation and heirs of salvation is set out by Al Gore on the DVD 'An Inconvenient Truth' available from Amazon.
3. ASHBURNHAM PRAYER AND CONFERENCE CENTRE (10 minutes)
Located in South Eastern England in easy reach of mainland Europe, this fantastic country estate was entrusted to the body of Christ nearly fifty years ago as a centre for prayer and training. Last year the Lord made clear that now is the time to move towards the goal of twenty-four hour prayer. Run by a staff team with the help of fifty or so volunteers from all over Europe, as well as other internationals, this move is the fulfilment of a vision that has persisted for half a century. Pray for wisdom, vision and practical grace for the team as they begin this month with six hours of prayer a day and move towards adding twenty-four hour prayer to their other responsibilities of caring for guests and running a large prayer and conference centre.
4. POSSIBLE NIGHTWATCH TRANSITION EVENT (10 minutes)
Last week we began to pray specifically for guidance for the location and content for the forthcoming transition event as this Nightwatch comes to an end in September. 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. We have scheduled an event for September 26th-28th 2008. Thanks for your prayers and responses. Please give us more. So far we have had several responses indicating a Brussels location and then a suggestion that we should be nearer the East, followed by the possibility of Munich as a location. WE NEED YOUR CONTINUED FEEDBACK ON THIS PLEASE.
