The Night Watch
The night watch is God’s territory and time for his people to intervene in the affairs of men through prayer, pursuit and praise!
Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.
Lamentations 2:19
In our lives we can position ourselves to be in a place where God can do unusual things in us and through us. We are normal people that serve a very unusual God. Our God has living creature, multitudes of angels, dwells in unapproachable light and has no beginning of days. When we encounter God we are encountering things associated with Him that are far beyond our natural comprehension, even mind-blowing.
Power Encounters
Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” So I answered, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said to me, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.”
Acts 22:6
Saul had such and encounter on the road to Damascus that turned his life 180 degrees the other direction. That is the power of an encounter with God. It can turn you around quicker than you can even imagine. Right when you think you have it all figured out God shows up to let you know just how much you don’t know.
When people get caught in religious ruts of repetition, rituals and formulas it takes an encounter with God to knock them out of it. That was the case with Saul.
For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with one another?
Galatians 5:17
Plans to Seek His Face
As believers we need to guard our hearts from that leaven of religiosity by embracing a life that is in passionate pursuit of God. We can be great at creating plans and there is one plan we should most definitely create – a plan to seek the Lord!
Night time is a very special time to seek the Lord. It is a very quiet time. Some times of the night are quieter than others. But all are great times to spend time with God. There is great reward as we take time to seek His face.
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Matthew 6:6
The secret place has reward for both during and after. Beyond the reward you have the joy of being with God, experiencing His Presence and being someone He shares His secrets with. There are 21 or more references in the Bible where God calls His servants prophets. Why is that? In scripture the prophets are associated as those who seek the Lord, put God first, walk faithfully before Him and follow His heart. Noah, Abraham, David and many others were all prophets.
Secrets & Prophets
And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him”
Genesis 18:17
Here we see Abraham as a man of God who has walked faithfully before the Lord. Because of this the Lord “revealed” to Abraham what He is about to do or let him in on a secret – that he might intercede for Lot and his family to see them delivered from destruction. Through Abraham’s intercession we see the heart of mercy revealed through His petitions before God that He might spare “the righteous” in a wicked city.
We can see how God entrusts His prophets with revelation concerning things that are happening because He is looking for an intercessor – someone to stand in the gap for others that they may be spared from His judgement.
Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Amos 3:7
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
What God shows you or what you may have eyes to see, even by the Spirit, in the lives of others is for the purpose of intercession – that you may stand in the gap for them. Sometimes we can be experts at seeing what is wrong with others but what we see is not for the purpose of accusation but rather intercession. Jesus sees it all and forever lives to intercede for the saints. The devil sees only to accuse and point the finger. Both see but both have a completely different response.
We can have eternal impact through our consecrated times of worship, prayer and praise in the night seasons to change the outcome for our lives and the lives of others.
Commit yourself to seek the Lord with the whole heart, be a facilitator of breakthrough and change for the people that you have been entrusted with in your life.