NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE week beginning Sunday August 3rd 2008
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
Many users of this watch material have already noted changes in the way they relate to these guidelines and the whole notion of a watch. Rather than having a regular weekly hour of prayer some have found themselves using the material at various times as input for reflection and prayer for their working week. Others refer to it as a means of keeping abreast of current theological-prophetic insight. So don’t worry if you feel as if you are not keeping a set watch as diligently as before. It is simply that the time is changing and the Watch is bringing us into some of the fullness of God’s plans for our continent. This emphatically does not mean that we don’t need prayer, so those of you whose energy and direction from the spirit for a weekly hour of prayer continues unabated please don’t stop! But for you others don’t feel disqualified from the Watch or unable to come to the transition event. You are already part of the transition!
Sp please plan either to come to or pray through the Nightwatch transition event on the island of Majorca from September 26-28th 2008. Full details of the registration process can be found at the end of these prayer guidelines.
This week the Watch material has been prepared once more by our good friend and fellow watcher Andy Knox from Manchester. Last week we began praying through his guidelines to the seminal prophesy in Isaiah 55 and we will continue to pray through it in the coming weeks. His work reflects the impact of current theological shifts on intercession, both in terms of our position in the world and the content of our prayer.
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 3rd 2008
ISAIAH 55
1. "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come; buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance” (Isa 55:1-2).
Please pray through these verses, giving thanks that the radical theology of the kingdom of God is totally other than the empires of man (4 minutes per point = 44 minutes)
• The thirsty get to drink clean water
• The hungry get to eat and be satisfied
• The poor are treated with dignity
• Work does not have to be in vain but can be fulfilling and life giving, with the seeds sown bearing fruit, not only now, but in the New Earth and Heaven.
• Pray for all work going into brining clean water and sanitation to the developing world
• Meditate on what Jesus means when He says "Man, shall not live on bread alone....". Man still needs bread to live on! Pray that with the increasing global food crisis, the powerful west will not use the land of the developing world to feed it's own greed, whilst allowing the people of those nations to starve.
• Thank God that He is Jehovah Jireh. That in Him there is enough for everyone.
• Meditate on 'Give us today our daily bread'
• Ask the Lord to forgive the greed of the capitalist west that is willing to spend more money on perfume every year than it would take to feed and water the whole of the developing world.
• Pray for every effort to establish peace in Zimbabwe – the 'bread basket of Africa'.
• Pray for strategies of abundance to develop, where nations/people groups become gifts to one another rather then competitors, oppressors or subjects.
2. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. 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.” (Isa 55:2-3)
Let’s give time to pray through the following challenges (4 minutes per point = 16 minutes)
• How much of what we are doing is really 'bringing in' the already present Kingdom of God?
• Are we allowing ourselves to become living stones with which the Lord is building the New Jerusalem? Are we living as though we are in hope of the second coming, when the Lord will finally make all things new? Do we live in hope and know that our labour in the Lord is not in vain? (Cf. I Corinthians 15:28) The things we do that are of the Kingdom, i.e. those things that bring life – love, righteousness, joy and peace will themselves bear fruit not only in this age but also in the age to come! Thank God that our labour is not in vain!
• Ask for deliverance from all that seems good to us but does not satisfy the needs of those around us to whom we are called to serve.
• Listen to the Lord. Repent for all activity that has led to barrenness and waste because we did not first listen!
