NIGHTWATCH FOR EUROPE: week beginning Sunday 4th March 2007
‘Could you not watch with me for one hour?’ (Mtt26: 40)
WELCOME TO THE NIGHT WATCH FOR EUROPE
For the last few weeks, we have been praying through the prophetic sight from Sue Mitchell which reflects the discernment of a number of prophetic voices in the islands of Britain and Ireland for the current season. Having come to this significant juncture in the story of Europe, the sense is that we, as the people of God in this continent, need to be radically matured by receiving supernatural wisdom, resisting false comfort and receiving a supernaturally different kingdom.
Although we have spent quite a few weeks on this already, we are going to give it another push. At the core of this watch is the call to connect heaven and earth so that we would watch over the breaking in of the Kingdom of God into our changing continent. Linked to this is watching over the transitions for the body of Christ, which is the gateway for that Kingdom to come and be stewarded on earth. So we have much grace to call for the Lord’s assistance as we continually step out into these new seasons that he is revealing and we can have much faith to ask for and his extraordinary wisdom and direction to be revealed to those who are called to walk out this Nazarite lifestyle – including ourselves!
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. We are looking to carry on for another year and eight months, 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 4th MARCH 2007
Drawing on the threefold Nazarite vow, the following guide identifies some scriptures which are key to how the church will receive the substance of the lifestyle signed by particularly the first two of these vows. The Nazarite vow not to cut the hair spoke of the Lord’s supernatural wisdom; not touching strong drink spoke of the need to imbibe the Lord’s supernatural comfort and not false comfort; the final vow, of not touching death, spoke ultimately of receiving a supernatural kingdom from God. These need now to be built into us as the people of God in Europe and are being resisted by the devil.
1. TAKE 10 MINUTES TO RESIST THE DEVIL!
We have much practice at this. Be absolutely assured of the considerable agreement we have with all the other watchers and also others who are being led by the Lord to pray in this way for us and our continent who may not receive this guide. Resist the devil strongly from your mind in particular! Do not hold back from praying strongly and in the confidence of the Spirit who “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God”.
2. TAKE 20 MINUTES TO PRAY OVER THE RELEASE OF A LIFESTYLE OF SUPERNATURAL WISDOM
Remember that the sight from Sue Mitchell’s word was that a new supernatural wisdom would be released in these years to ‘unlikely people’. This will be essential wisdom for the new culture and society that is emerging. As intercessors, we need to seek and cultivate this wisdom from the Lord.
In John 2, when Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus begins to reveal the central wisdom of why he has come into the world. Nicodemus, who was trained in the law and the prophets, knew the language of signs very well. He knew that “no one can do these signs that [Jesus does] unless God is with him”. He seemed to have the right equipment (and even a prophetic discernment) to receive and live out of the supernatural wisdom of God, but he could not receive the word that something must happen to his life that would challenge his current understanding. Signs are easier to live with than substance: it is easier to be baptised than to lay down our lives daily. But, “unless we are born of water AND the Spirit”, we will not receive the full kingdom of God.
So are we today. The prophetic season has equipped us to see and interpret the significance of signs, but we are being called to go further. Pray for Christians throughout all walks of life in this continent (and your city and nation) who are seeking to lay hold of what the wisdom of God is in their work, leisure and family. True wisdom – as Samson found – often demanded deeper disciplines and more difficult choices. Nicodemus did not, despite being hungry for it and coming to Jesus in the night, initially fully receive the Lord’s wisdom as far as we know. We must ask the Lord again for the grace to wrestle, like Jacob, and not give up until God has established this lifestyle of wisdom in us to know how to live (and for whose cause we live!), in addition to having received our identity from him (Gen 32).
3. TAKE 20 MINUTES TO PRAY THROUGH THE ISSUE OF FALSE COMFORT THROUGH POWER AND ASK THE LORD FOR HIS TRUE COMFORT AND LEADERSHIP
Again, remember the word which we prayed through concerning the false comfort associated with idolatry. The Holy Spirit is among us as the Comforter, and it is to him that we must turn. But there are all sorts of addictive behaviour (some of which is obvious, and some of which we need the Lord to expose for us) that we so easily adopt in the flesh in place of this true comfort.
After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus perceived that the people were about to come and try to make him king, so he left alone and miraculously met the disciples on the other side of the sea (Jn 6:15-21). Perhaps the strongest of false comforts is power (of the kind of Empire and self-benefit). Having begun to lay hold of the incarnational wisdom of God, we must resist all attempts to establish structural hierarchy and power bases among the people of God, and particularly among the new apostolic things that God is doing. When the people finally catch up with Jesus, their hearts are revealed, for they wanted to know what they would have to do to “work the works of God” and have God’s power for their own (Jn 6:28).
Power works in two basic ways: when positions of power are given to people by others, and when people take power for themselves. We must be careful to submit fully to the Lord and his leadership, while resisting any easy paths of worldly power structures, which may claim to be for our safety and comfort, but which are, in fact, idolatry. Be sure and pray for all those you know who are pressing out into new ground for the kingdom of God that they would have the wisdom of Christ to know how to stand.
4. TAKE 10 MINUTES TO CONTINUE TO PRAY OVER SIGNIFICANT SHIFTS IN LEADERSHIP THAT HAVE STARTED AND ARE CONTINUING
Continue to pray for God’s timing concerning significant shifts in governmental and church leadership roles and for the opportunities that follow the shifts to be taken up by the right people. We continue to call for the church, the continent and the wider world situations involved to make way for greater partnership and justice in leadership and for the poor to be made the priority in every situation.
Like the angel who stands astride the sea and the land in Revelation 10, let us declare boldly that there should be delay no longer in the shifts that God is speaking of.
WE ARE PRIVILEGED TO STAND WITH YOU IN THIS WATCH. THANKS!
